to live will be an awfully big adventure

The Airport Scene

2011-12-03T22:03:00.000-08:00

When I finally arrived at the Austin airport last night after 40 hours of traveling, it was truly magical. Epic theme music was playing as I ran in slow motion across the terminal, and glitter fell from the ceiling when I leapt gracefully into my boyfriend's arms and he spun me around. Everyone was wiping tears away and sniffling.

Ok, so really my plane landed early and Patrick hadn't even gotten to the airport yet. I came down the steps to baggage claim searching in vain for him and the 10 or so friends who were driving down from Temple to welcome me home. About half-way down the stairs my friend Jen appeared, a happy but concerned look on her face.

"Jen, where is everybody?"

"Girl, I don't know. They're not here yet. You'd better go back up those stairs and come down again after they get here."

"I'm not going back up the stairs."

"You have to! You don't want to miss the Hallmark moment. Just go on back up the stairs and wait a few minutes. I'll take pictures."

I didn't go back up the stairs. We went and picked up my luggage, then found a spot to sit and wait. Before I could sit down, Jen said "Oh, wait, I think I see them! Aren't those some of his friends?" I turned around, saw Pat walking in the door, and at that point I don't really remember what happened in my brain, I just lost control. Poor Jen, I dumped my bags in her arms, abandoned her and took off running - definitely NOT in slow motion. The graceful leap was more like a body slam that almost brought us both to the ground. Pat didn't even see me til I was about 5 feet away, at which point I realized I running too fast to slow down. He had time to throw his cell phone at Chris and say "hold this!" before I almost knocked him over. He claims I broke a few of his ribs...but I don't think he minds.

It's good to be home.

Back in America!

2011-12-02T14:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a long 2 days, but I'm almost home! Yesterday at noon I went out on the dock for my last round of Mercy Ship goodbyes...only this time, I was in the Land Rover, not standing on the dock. Freetown traffic was awful, we probably could have gotten to the ferry quicker if we'd walked. But we finally made it, and then had a couple of hours of waiting before the ferry took us across the harbor to Lungi. There were over 20 people disembarking yesterday, so we had plenty of company. :) On the other side of the harbor, we all loaded up in SUV's and minivans and drove to the airport. After getting our bags through, we all gathered in a corner of the non-air-conditioned airport and sat for hours before it was time for our flight. It was very hot and humid, but that's been the norm for the past 6 months. Winter is going to shock me this year. An 8-hour flight got us to Brussels, where we had one last round of goodbyes as everyone went their separate ways. Then I had a 6-hour wait in the boring Brussels airport. At least I didn't spend money on stupid airport souveneirs or overpriced food, since I didn't have any euros. (well, Rachel did buy me a cup of coffee). After the long layover, I had a 9-hour flight to Washington D.C., where I'm currently enjoying the incredibly fast, free airport wi-fi, and a Starbucks frappucino. :) One more flight left, and I'll be in Texas with my honey! I'm dirty and sweaty and crumpled and grubby and tired, but so so excited!!!

Goodbyes and Cleaning

2011-11-28T11:43:00.000-08:00

I'm down to my last few days in Sierra Leone, and probably won't have much time to blog this week, so here's a quick update.

After an energetic worship service with the patients in the wards, we slowly sent each one of them home last week and shut down the hospital. There have been lots of goodbyes lately - not only are the patients gone, but so are our day volunteers (locals who work on the ship as translators, housekeepers, deck hands, and help in the hospital). We had a celebration on Friday to say thank-you to all of our day volunteers, and there were lots of tears as everyone hugged goodbye. The crew have also been trickling out; every Monday and Thursday a crowd gathers on the dock to send off the Land Rovers full of crew members and their baggage, headed to the airport. We're down to just 3 people in my 6-bunk cabin, and soon Julie will be all alone, as Rachel and I leave this Thursday!

Although the surgeries have stopped and the hospital is closed there is still quite a bit of work to be done before the ship will be ready to sail. This morning all the remaining nurses, about 30 or so, gathered in B ward for a time of worship and devotions before we donned our rubber gloves and got to work scrubbing and bleaching every inch of the hospital. I spent the morning outside on the dock, helping the dental team pack up all their equipment into a shipping container that will now be lifted up onto the top deck of the ship with the crane. Many hands made light work, and we were completely finished before lunchtime! After lunch and another round of goodbyes as more crew headed to the airport, I went down to the ward and joined the cleaning team. We have our own ways of making cleaning fun. Imagine about 8 nurses, wearing scrubs rolled up to their knees and blue rubber gloves on their hands, holding sponges and spray bottles. The main lights are turned off, but the emergency alarm light is on, flashing like a disco ball. "All the Single Ladies" is blaring out of the little computer speakers, and rather than wiping down cabinets or sorting dressing supplies, the nurses are just dancing around the half-empty ward and singing. Yep, that was my afternoon. After the dance party we got back to work, but first put the movie "Grease" on the TV's and sang along to "Summer Days" and "Beauty School Dropout" while we cleaned.

Now I have the evening free, and am trying to get up the motivation to go start sorting my stuff and packing for home. I might just end up in the cafe playing cards with friends instead...

Thanksgiving on the Africa Mercy

2011-11-24T16:42:00.000-08:00

A month ago our galley staff cooked up a lovely turkey dinner in honor of Canada's Thanksgiving day, and today we got to enjoy another Thanksgiving dinner for the Americans onboard. All day my American friends and I have been trying to explain to our non-American friends why we celebrate Thanksgiving. It's made for some entertaining conversations.

Brit: "So...the pilgrims, from England, were thankful to the Indians that they didn't starve?"

Canadian: "Yeah, and then they gave the Indians smallpox blankets."

American: "They didn't know the blankets had smallpox on them!"

Brit: "England's such a small country, but it's interesting how we're involved in everything."

American: "We were trying to get away from you!"

I ate dinner with 3 nurses from the United Kingdom, and when we sat down to eat Jess looked at me, the lone American at the table, and said "is there something we're supposed to do? Do we have to sing a song or say something special before we can eat?"

I'd already started eating. Oops. "Um, well, sometimes my family all goes around the table and everyone says something they're thankful for." So we did that, and then I got back to my turkey and mashed potatoes. Yum!

I didn't get very far though before Larry, an older gentleman from somewhere in America, stood up and rang the bell. There's a bell in the middle of our dining room that people ring when they want to make an announcement during a meal. Usually it's an announcement for someone's birthday, and everyone in the dining room sings happy birthday. Today, Larry stood up and said something nice and nostalgic about it being Thanksgiving, and then added "and I'd like all the Americans to join me in singing God Bless America."

What followed was a half-hearted rendition of what sort of sounded like 'God Bless America,' but nobody really knew all the words, and everyone was off-key. Every time I tried to sing I just heard how off-key everyone was, and started laughing, which made me start coughing. I've had a cough for about 3 weeks now. Anyway...the Thanksgiving song fell rather flat, but the meal was lovely. I miss my mama's cornbread stuffing and sweet potato pudding, but dinner was still really good. And a few hours later we all gathered in the cafe and had delicious apple pie and ice cream! All in all, it was a nice Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for right now, I can't even begin to list it all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

You know you're ready to go home when Disney makes you cry

2011-11-23T06:40:00.000-08:00

So, I was watching a Disney princess movie with Jess this afternoon before work, and in the middle of the sappy part we looked at each other to find that both our chins were quivering.

Me: *sniff*

Jess: "Does this make you think of Pat?"

Me: "Yes!"

Jess: "I miss Fraser. I think it's time we went home."

Me: "Uh-huh."

Preparing for Goodbye

2011-11-21T15:59:00.000-08:00

It's after midnight, and I'm in an eyes-glazed-over-and-contacts-dried-out state of sleep deprivation and should really be going to bed, but the mood is upon me to write, so here I am. Forgive me, I'm in a strange mood.

T-minus-ten days til I pack up my bags, turn in my room key, and walk down the gangway of the Africa Mercy for the last time. Sometimes I accidentally call it the gangplank, not the gangway. But no worries, the captain hasn't made anyone walk the plank yet. I don't think we even have a plank.

I've been on night shift for the past 4 nights. Thursday was the last day of surgeries, so the patients left on the ward have all been here for awhile. That means there was hardly anything for me to do during my shifts. All my patients slept soundly, hardly needed anything, and after I did everyone's vital signs and assessments at 10:00, I had practically no work to do for the rest of the night. I did lots of reading, knitting, and looking at photos on the computer.

My dear friend and bunkmate Rachael said goodbye and headed back to England today. She and I have been through a lot together the past 5 months, and it was definitely a hard goodbye. After wiping the tears away, I went down to my room, saw her empty bed, and started crying again. Another good friend, Kari, went home today also. It's hard to see the crew dwindling away as people leave, and it made me wish that it was me going home today instead so I could just have it all over with. The flight from Freetown to Brussels only goes out on Mondays and Thursdays, and the rest of my Mondays and Thursdays here are going to be full of goodbyes. But that's the nature of Mercy Ships, and really it's the nature of life. Life is constantly changing, people come and go, transitions are made.

We're also saying goodbye to patients, as the hospital is closing for good this Friday. I wrote about that some the other day, regarding Aminata. There are other patients whose wounds haven't finished healing, or who need more surgeries, and it's hard to leave them before the job is done. But I know that even if the ship stayed and the hospital continued operating, the job would never be done. There will always be more people who need care, more stubborn wounds that won't close up, more complications. We just have to do what we can, the best that we can, and leave these people in God's hands. Some of the patients who need further surgeries in the future have been given instructions to travel to Guinea when the ship is there for a field service next year. Others have been referred to local hospitals that have agreed to partner with us in providing follow-up care. And still others simply will be given the best teaching we can, and we'll hope that they follow instructions at home and recover without complication. Please pray for these patients, that their wounds will heal quickly, that the ones experiencing pain would have relief, and that their home situations would be conducive to recovery.

Although part of me wishes that it had been me packing up and heading home today, another part of me knows that the next 10 days are going to fly by. Tomorrow I have the day off, and plan to spend it hiking with friends. Wednesday and Thursday will be my last 2 shifts on the ward, and Friday I'll be working a "cleaning" shift as we scrub down and pack up the hospital. After a weekend off, I'll be cleaning again on Monday and Tuesday. Next Wednesday will be spent completing the checklists and paperwork I have to do before leaving, and packing up and cleaning my room. Then Thursday I'll take the ferry across the harbor to the airport, and wave goodbye to Sierra Leone! It's a strange feeling. Lots of thoughts and feelings and emotions. But I've run out of words for now, so I'm heading for bed.

Our Princess

2011-11-17T18:00:00.000-08:00

When I first arrived in Sierra Leone and found out that I would be taking care of both adults AND children on the wards, I was nervous. My last experience in pediatrics was my limited clinical time in college, and I was (and still am, to some extent) very insecure about my abilities as a peds nurse. One of my first little patients way back in June was Aminata, a baby with a big tumor growing underneath her jaw. She was severely malnourished and developmentally delayed when she came to us, so she was put on the infant feeding program to get her healthy enough for surgery. I remember when we were taking care of her in June, Ami was very lethargic and didn't even have the energy to cry or kick her legs. Her arms and legs were much too skinny in proportion to the rest of her body, and her hair was thin and pale.

After staying in the hospital for awhile on tube feedings, she and her mother were sent to live at the Hope Center while she continued to fatten up before surgery. Over the next few months, Ami slowly gained weight and began acting more and more like the 2-year-old she is. Finally she was healthy enough to undergo surgery! All the nurses were so excited to see her back in the hospital, and she quickly became the Princess of D Ward. I remember one day I looked over and saw a group of our day volunteers gathered around Ami's bed, playing the guitar and singing to her. She had the biggest smile on her face, and was waving her arms at them while they sang.

In the operating room, the surgeons found that the tumor was much bigger than they'd anticipated. They had to do quite a bit of "digging" to get it all out, and as a result Aminata had a lot of swelling around her throat after the procedure. She came back to us intubated and breathing on a ventilator, and took up residence in the ICU. She had one-on-one care from nurses with pediatric ICU experience, and lots of visitors over the next few weeks. One evening as I was getting ready for my shift, I heard an announcement come on the overhead speakers: "Emergency medical team to the ICU!" My heart sank when I heard that; I knew we only had one patient in the ICU at the time. When I showed up in the ward for work, a crowd was gathered around Ami's bed. Despite being sedated, she had pulled her breathing tube out and there was too much swelling around her throat to put a new one in. As the doctors and emergency medical team were working, all the D Ward nurses waited nervously next door. At one point our team leader, Natalie, looked up at us and said "Are you guys ok? I think I'm more worried about you than Aminata!" Several of us were close to tears, worried about our little princess. Ami was rushed down the hall to the operating room to have a tracheostomy placed, and she came back to us on the ventilator again.

It was a long, slow process, but eventually the swelling went down enough for Ami to start breathing on her own and come off the ventilator. Her trach site healed up, but she had a pretty nasty respiratory infection after that. Several more weeks on antibiotics and tube feedings had her slowly but surely feeling better. She's been going back and forth between the Hope Center and the hospital since getting her feeding tube out, and is brighter-eyed and happier than ever these days. It's really amazing to see the change in her, since having taken care of her back in June. She's definitely fattened up since then, loves to play with the nurses, and smiles all the time. Her hair is healthy, and her legs are strong enough for her to start learning how to walk!

Despite the improvements, Aminata's tumor may return, and her chest infection never quite went away. And the ship is leaving in December. Leaving Ami before she's completely healed is something we're all struggling with. It's hard to leave before the problem is fixed. It's hard to go home to a country where I have immediate access to whatever healthcare I need, when the people I leave behind don't have enough medicine or doctors or food or clean water. All of Ami's memories are here on the ship; what's she going to think when all of a sudden, we're gone? Her home is probably not a very clean environment; what if her infection gets worse? One of my coworkers reminded me the other day: God brought Aminata to us. He was with her all along, and He'll still be with her when we leave.

Snippets from the Ward

2011-11-12T01:02:00.000-08:00

During handover yesterday, we had a little worship time and prayer in B ward. After the nurses finished praying I heard someone behind me calling "Root! come." It was Isatu, and she was gesturing for me to come over, saying "you pray for me." So I went over, took her hands, and prayed for her. Then I said "now you pray for me" and she took my hands and did. It was the best way to start a shift.

We have the cutest little cleft lip baby named Alpha on D ward right now. Since he was born with a cleft lip, he never learned how to suck, so he has to be fed formula with a spoon or syringe. The other day he was crying and screaming for food, and by the time Jess got the formula mixed up and sat down to feed him, he was quite a pathetic little mess. He was hungry so he was trying to eat, but not used to breathing differently yet after the surgery, so he kept choking. On top of that he was mad so he was crying and kicking, and he may have had a dose of lactulose, which was making things get rather squishy in that diaper of his. Poor little Alpha was just an angry, spluttering, burping, farting, hungry mess. In between the gasps and coughs, Jess managed to squirt enough formula in his mouth to satisfy him, and in the end he was content and fell asleep.

Yesterday I went down the hall to fetch something from the kitchen, and heard quite the commotion down by A ward. A few of the nurses and plastics kids were having a bowling tournament in the hallway with a plastic toy bowling ball, using empty pediasure bottles for bowling pins. They looked like they were having a blast.

During some down time when I had nothing to do yesterday evening, I just sat down on a stool and Kadiatu, my wild woman, came and crawled up on my lap. She started nodding off so I carried her to bed. Her dad called me back as I was walking away and said "she needs nappy!" I hadn't realized that she was sitting in my lap for 20 minutes without a diaper on. Glad I didn't find that out the hard way.

Taking care of kids, I've had lots of medicine spit back out into my face. My little 13-month-old patient Esther was quite a surprise yesterday when she saw me coming with a syringe full of her antibiotics. She sat up, crawled over to me, and sweetly tilted her head up with her mouth open. I squirted the medicine in, and she just swallowed it without a fuss! What a nice treat for me - no metronidazole splattered across my scrubs or anything. :)

We have a little girl named Sia who has Burkitt's lymphoma, a nasty cancer causing huge facial tumors. Usually we would have cared for her through the Burkitt's program we have on the ship, but since it's the end of the outreach, the Burkitt's program is shut down and we aren't able to finish her chemotherapy treatments. Instead, we're sending Sia and her mother and little sister to a hospital in Guinea to complete the chemo. Mercy Ships is paying for the medical care, but there was a bit of an issue finding the money to pay for their transportation and lodging, and the patient life team was working to find donations. The other day our team leader Natalie came running into the ward with some great news - she had been talking to one of the patient life people upstairs in the cafe, about how much money they would need to take care of Sia and her family for the next few months in Guinea. A lady in the cafe came over and said "excuse me - I don't mean to be eavesdropping - but are you talking about a child? I have some money set aside from one of my donors that's meant to go to help a child, and I've been wondering how I could find a child to help." The money the woman had set aside was just the right amount to help Sia. Isn't God amazing?!

At the end of my shift last night I grabbed my water bottle, and Kadiatu immediately started waving goodbye to me. She's figured out that when the nurses pick up their water bottles, they're leaving for the day. So cute!

Kadiatu and her dad

Sweet Sia and her little sister

On the Road to Freetown

2011-11-10T02:07:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I got up early and headed to the beach with Rachael, Sarah, Fran, Kari, Julie, and Mona. It was a fabulous day from the very beginning. Usually a trip to the beach starts by walking up Bad Boy Lane, flagging down a poda poda or taxi and arguing for 30 minutes about prices. But Friday night Rachael asked one of the local day volunteers who works on the ward to call and arrange transportation for us. Saturday morning there was a poda waiting for us on the other side of the iron gates at the dock - on time and for a reasonable price. After an hour-and-45-minutes bumpy ride through town we arrived at the beach. Amazing waves, warm sunshine, good friends, delicious food (barracuda and cous cous!), and a little shopping made for a great day.

I didn't take many pictures on the beach, but tried to take a bunch on the way back, of the countryside between the beach and Freetown. Here's what I managed to get out the window of the poda poda:

The ride back through Freetown was highly entertaining. People are used to just jumping into a poda whenever they slow down enough, and our driver had to explain to several people that ours was taken. One person hopped in the front seat and the driver quickly told him that he had to leave. The man turned around, saw all us white women, and apologized profusely. Then he looked at Rachael and said "I love you!" Rachael responded "no, you do NOT love me! And I am not having this conversation." The man left and our driver shook his head, telling Rachael "Ah, you have broken his heart." Everyone had a good laugh over that one. At another point in the drive someone on the street saw us and yelled "Eh! Americans!" Rachael tapped our driver's shoulder and said, "Excuse me, just so you know, I am NOT American. I am British! And SHE (pointing to Julie next to her) is Canadian. So you just tell him that next time you see him." Later we looked out and saw someone in a strange costume making his way down the street. He was wearing a mask and had bundles of sticks coming out his sleeves where his hands should have been. We tried to get an explanation from the driver, but weren't really sure what the occasion was. Some kind of festival or holiday we think. When we were almost home, there was a slight disturbance on the street. A taxi had broken down in the middle of the road and stopped traffic. There was a lot of angry yelling out on the street, and it kept getting more and more crowded as people tried to get where they were going. There was a small space open behind the broken-down taxi where we needed to turn, and the driver just went for it. While we were all distracted by the commotion caused by the roadblock, Fran, who was sitting close to the front, screamed. We all looked out the other window and saw 4 bulls charging down the road, headed straight for us! A man running behind them was frantically beating them with a stick, trying to redirect their path. What in the world - there's never a dull moment in Africa. Thankfully the bulls missed us, and we escaped being gorged by their horns. Fran was a little shaken up for the rest of the ride home, understandably.

By the time we successfully made it back to the ship we'd missed dinner, so after washing off the sand and sea water, we headed to the crew galley to make a big pot of mac-n-cheese and laugh about the adventures we'd had together.

Faces to go with the names

2011-11-06T13:22:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to share a few pictures from work last week:

Enjoying the sea breeze out on Deck 7

The patients aren't the only ones who like to play with the wagons :)

Blowing bubbles is always fun too

Ward worship

Kadiatu, my little wild woman. Note the pretty blue coban wrapped around her hand, to prevent the pulling out of any more tubes.

Bockarie, who got a new nose

"Stockings" up there pulled out Esther's nasal trumpet the other night. Neither one of them is very impressed with their NG tubes.

Princess Royal

2011-11-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

I completely forgot to blog about this - then I was looking through the pictures on one of the ship computers today, and remembered. Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne, was in Sierra Leone last week and decided to pay a visit to the Africa Mercy! The ship was a flurry of activity as wards were scrubbed, floors mopped and waxed til they sparkled, and everyone practiced their curtsies. I've never seen this place so clean and shiny. I didn't meet the princess, but some of my friends were working when she toured the hospital...so, I know someone who met the princess. That counts for something, right? ;-)

I think the missionary kids were a little disappointed that she didn't wear a tiara.

In other news, Kadiatu smiled and laughed today. That made me very happy. We have lots of pikins with NG tubes on D ward right now, and they've been kind of fussy the past few days...understandably. But today they all started feeling a little better and having some fun. My little one in bed 9, Esther, pulled her nasal trumpet out last night, but she did not go back into respiratory distress so all is well. At the end of my shift, I learned that she was actually not the one responsible for the nasal trumpet coming out, but her mischievous neighbor, Muka in bed 11 was. I guess the little guy decided he was a nurse last night and that Esther's airway was fine.

21 weeks down, 4 to go!

2011-10-31T03:24:00.000-07:00

A few little stories from the ward this past week:

"Nurse" Shaka is a man who had a giant lipoma removed from the back of his neck. He told us he's a nurse at a local hospital, and perhaps he is. The other day he was found adjusting the IV drip rate for another patient. Later on he and another patient from the ward were found in the ICU with a patient on isolation, all three of them having some heated discussion about who knows what. Concepts like "patient confidentiality" and "isolation precautions" can be difficult to communicate sometimes.

"Fanta Man" was a confused elderly patient who kept things interesting for D ward the past couple of weeks, doing things like holding intense conversations with the soap dispenser and attempting to escape the hospital. Ali has some pretty hilarious stories:

fanta man

the continued adventures of fanta man

It's been encouraging to see little Kadiatu's spirits improve. She's a 5-year-old girl who had facial reconstructive surgery to correct damage caused by noma. She was NOT a happy camper over the weekend. Her wounds need some time to heal before we can let her put food in her mouth, which means tube feedings for a week. On Saturday, anytime I touched that NG tube (or her IV, or her bandages, or pretty much any part of her) she would scream bloody murder. That night she ripped out everything that was attached to her, so Sunday she took another trip to the OR to have it all replaced. When I saw her again Sunday evening I saw her new NG tube was sutured to her face and safety pinned to one of the braids on top of her head. Poor pikin. She didn't seem to be screaming quite as much Sunday, but still whimpered throughout all of her tube feedings. Rhoda and I took turns holding her while the feedings were going, and she managed to get through the shift without ripping anything out. Tuesday and Wednesday Kadi ventured outside when we took the patients to Deck 7, but she spent the hour just sitting in her caregiver's lap, looking at the water. Today on Deck 7 she actually played a little bit, went for a ride on one of the tricycles, and walked back downstairs by herself instead of being carried.

We're coming to the end of the Sierra Leone outreach, and the hospital will be closing in 3 weeks. It's strange to think that we only have 3 weeks left of NG feeds, sterile dressing changes, chlorhexidine mouthwashes, cleft lip babies with their adorable little steri strip cat-whisker faces spitting medicine back out at us, singing with our patients, praying with them as we send them off to the operating room and celebrating with them when they come back transformed. As things wind down we're starting to tidy up the wards, scan all the charts into the computer system, and get ready to pack up the ship before the sail in December. It's bitter-sweet, but I'm glad I'll be here until the end. I think that packing up and scrubbing down the hospital my last week here will help me say goodbye to this place, bring a sense of closure to my time here. It was definitely a big transition to get settled in here on the ship when I came, and now I begin another transition as I prepare to come home.

Mama Isatu

2011-10-31T02:18:00.000-07:00

Isatu is a patient everyone on D ward has come to love. Sadly, the surgery we did on her jaw was only palliative, as the tumor was cancerous and will likely return. Shortly after surgery Isatu's wound opened back up to form a fistula through her cheek into her mouth. This led to a prolonged hospital stay, scrupulous wound care twice a day, and three weeks of tube feedings instead of only one. Despite her situation, Isatu always had a bright smile on her face. I would often hurry through the ward, focused on some task or other, and hear her call out behind me, "Rooot!!" I'd turn around and she'd be waving excitedly, eyes twinkling. I'd go over to her bed, get a hand squeeze or hug, and remember again why I'm here. Last week her teenage son (or maybe grandson, I'm not sure) was here to visit her and she was very excited to introduce him to all the nurses.

"My pikin, my pikin," she said, pointing at the young man. ("Pikin" is the Krio word for baby, or small child). Isatu gestured to Hannah, another nurse, and told her "your brother."

"My brother?" Hannah asked, confused.

Isatu nodded. "He my pikin. You my pikin. Your brother." Then she pointed at me, "You all my pikins."

Isatu now has the feeding tube out and is eating normal food, her wound is healing up nicely, and we were able to send her off to the Hope Center yesterday afternoon. I'll definitely be going to the Hope Center for a visit this week. :)

What did you do this weekend?

2011-10-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

Living on a hospital ship, in a city where we can't exactly hop in the car and drive to the mall or movie theater (even if we could, there's a curfew when everyone has to be back on the ship for the night), we find ways to make our own entertainment. Sometimes that entertainment involves taking a cup of tea outside and watching the dive team fish a wayward forklift out of the water down below. Sometimes a huge group gets together in the Starbucks cafe for "trivia night," and teams answer random trivia questions while drinking frappucinos and sharing snacks. Once we had a film festival, where everyone submitted homemade movies and we all dressed up to go watch them together. There are lots of card games, movie nights, and "tea at ten" parties. This Friday night, a group of 20+ ladies gathered in the Queen's Lounge, armed with pillows and chocolate, and spent 5 hours quoting along with and giggling at the antics of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. Saturday evening a few of us carried our plates of food up 3 flights of stairs and had a picnic on the top deck. We watched the sun set, then lay on our backs on a blanket and watched the stars come out. Today we're going to be very busy laying out by the pool and soaking up as much sun as possible before another busy week begins. :)

Midnight rambles

2011-10-19T16:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a week since my last post, and I don't really know what to write about at the moment, so here are some random thoughts before I go to sleep:

I think I'm becoming somewhat institutionalized, eating in a cafeteria. My stomach starts growling at 12:00 and 5:00 every day.

I went to fabric street yesterday. I bought some fabric. A pickpocket tried to get in our bags, but was unsuccessful. I carry a bag that zips up all the way for just that reason.

There's dried baby drool all over my scrub top right now. I don't really care.

People from England will never approve of Americans' pronunciation. I wonder what they'd think if they visited Texas? ;-P

We've had triple max-fax surgeries the past few weeks, which means D ward has been busy...and we're overflowing into C ward and B ward.

I now automatically introduce myself as "Root." Nobody understands me when I say "Ruth."

I walked into C ward today and heard my patient from last week, an older lady named Isatu, excitedly call out "Root!" I looked up and she beckoned me over, a big grin on her face, and grasped my hand and gave me a hug. I love moments like that.

I miss my boyfriend. Six months is a long time.

My boyfriend sent me jalapeno cheddar cheetos. I'm trying to make them last at least a week.

I've started looking at nursing jobs online several days a week. Which probably doesn't make sense, cause those jobs will be taken by the time I get home. But I can't help myself...

I went to a local church service on Sunday. It was really long, and I was tired. But I didn't fall asleep, cause they had ushers patrolling the aisles, on the look-out for people who fell asleep, and nudging them awake and shaking their heads at them disapprovingly.

This is Aminata. She's the princess of D ward. The drool on my scrubs is hers.

More highlights from the past week

2011-10-12T13:47:00.001-07:00

After the beach excursion Saturday, it was nice to have another day off work to just relax and do nothing. Most of Sunday I could be found outside on Deck 8, reading a book or lying out by the pool with some friends. I actually swam a little bit too - my first time in the pool. When the ship rocks a lot, it turns into a wave pool and the water pretty much carries you from one end to the other.

On Sunday evening, a few friends and I walked up Bad Boy Lane (the road leading down to the docks) to visit the patients at the Hope Center. Several of our max-fax patients had been discharged that day, and it was fun to go see them, take pictures, and play with the kids for a couple of hours, as well as meet some patients who haven't had their surgeries yet. It started to rain a little while we were there, but nobody really cared. As soon as we walked up to where the patients were gathered outside, a little girl named Lucia, about 4 or 5 years old, with a big tumor on her face ran up and gave us all hugs. I'd never met her before, but apparently she didn't care - she was more than ready to be friends. :) Hopefully she'll feel the same way when we're taking care of her on the ward soon. Another group of crewmembers from the ship was there at the same time as us, doing a Bible lesson/puppet show for the patients. When the show started, Lucia reached up her arms to me, clearly wanting some snuggle time. So I stood and held her throughout the entire show, and remembered what I love about this place. Priceless moment: standing with a group of patients out in the drizzling African rain, singing "Tell Papa God tenki," while a little girl wraps her arms around my neck, puts her head on my chest, and falls asleep. When the puppet show was over and it was time for us to go back to the ship, several of the patients walked with us across the yard to the gate. Across the street someone was playing loud hip-hop music, and we all started dancing as we walked. After we'd waved goodbye and headed down the road to the docks, we looked back and saw some of the patients still dancing as they returned to the buildings. Fun times.

Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving! Something I've never thought about before, but we have a lot of Canadians on board. I won't say no to Thanksgiving dinner in October...or anytime, for that matter. :)

Tuesday evening we all got an interesting show to watch. Down on the dock, someone drove a forklift off the edge and into the water! Thankfully there was nobody in the forklift when it went down. Within minutes there was a crew of engineers and deck hands wearing hard hats and looking important on the dock, cranes and chains were being set up for the retrieval of the wayward forklift (now covered by 30 feet of water and 5 feet of mud), and the dive team was donning their wet suits and flippers and jumping into the murky water. I was in the peanut gallery out on the top deck of the ship, looking down on all the action while also enjoying a beautiful sunset to the west and lightning show to the east. Who needs TV in a place like this? Check out Heather's blog for pictures.

Ship Holiday

2011-10-12T00:53:00.000-07:00

It seems like multiple times throughout a week something will happen that I plan on blogging about later...and then by the time I sit down and start writing, I've completely forgotten what it was I wanted to write about. So, I've thought back over the past week, and jotted down some of the little highlights to share. Here are a couple of them:

Friday's excitement involved some of my coworkers running into Eva Mendes out on the streets of Freetown. Talk about random - this is NOT the place you expect to meet celebrities. For the full story, check out Ali's blog.

This past weekend was a "ship holiday," which means the people who work Monday-to-Friday, 9-5 jobs got a 3-day weekend. No surgeries on Friday, and most of the crew went off-ship and took mini-vacations at the beach, chimpanzee sanctuary, traveled up-country, hiked mountains, etc. On Saturday I joined a group of 9 people heading out to Burreh Beach for the day. I always have mixed feelings about going to the beach. After living on a ship and not getting outside much, it's glorious to spend some time outside, breathe some FRESH AIR (it usually smells like garbage or sewage out on the dock), and soak in some sunshine. However, it's always a bit of a stressful ordeal actually GETTING to the beach, and the bigger the group, the harder it is. Sarah and I got some phone numbers of taxi drivers and she called to find someone who would be willing to come pick us up, drive us to the beach, and then bring us back to the ship at the end of the day. After calling a few numbers we thought someone might show up the next morning...but we weren't really sure. Language barriers always make things interesting. Oh well, we could always just walk up the road and flag one down. Saturday morning the nine of us gathered together, swimsuits on and backpacks full of snacks and books. As soon as we walked through the metal gate and left the dock area, a taxi driver ran up and informed us that he was the driver we'd called earlier. However, he only had one taxi, and we needed 2 for our group. He had also changed the price we had agreed on over the phone, and decided we were going to a different beach, one closer to town. Over the next frustrating half hour we haggled back and forth, eventually coming to a price everybody agreed upon and getting a second taxi. I squeezed into the back seat of one with 3 other girls and our backpacks, and we started the hour-long drive through Freetown and out into the countryside. We were enjoying the pretty scenery out in the country when our driver suddenly said "do you recognize this area? Are we going the right way?" Jess responded, "we don't know - YOU'RE the driver!" Apparently he didn't actually know how to get to the beach we were going to - a fact he failed to mention earlier. So he pulled over, asked directions, and we eventually made it to Burreh. Once we actually arrived, it was a lovely day. We met up with some other nurses and day volunteers who were already there, and spent a few hours swimming in clean, emerald water and lying in the sun. Toward the end of the day I was having a second swim when dark clouds rolled in over the mountains, the water got choppy, and the rain started to pour. The rain was cold, making the sea water feel really warm. There's something unique about swimming in the rain off the coast of West Africa. We tried to wait for the rain to stop before leaving, but it showed no sign of letting up and it was time for us to go. So we gathered our now-sopping belongings, hiked up the path through the downpour to where the taxis were waiting, and squished back in. The windows immediately fogged up, but that didn't stop the driver from zooming back out onto the road. We asked "um, can you see alright?" To which he responded curtly "I can see." We looked at each other nervously, prayed, and hoped for the best. After awhile the windows cleared up, the rain stopped, and we all made it back to the ship in one piece.

Max-fax patients

2011-10-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I got to spend a few hours in the operating rooms, observing various surgeries. I went back and forth between the max-fax, ENT, and plastics rooms, but spent the majority of my time in the max-fax room. I watched Dr. Gary remove a massive bony tumor that I think was caused by fibrous dysplasia. During the next several days, I had the priviledge of being the nurse assigned to the spunky eleven-year-old girl, Comfort, whose surgery I watched. Comfort usually had a smile on her face, especially after I took out her feeding tube and let her start eating real food again. She liked to hold and play with the babies on the ward, sing and clap with us during ward worship, and take pictures whenever the photographer came through.
Comfort and her sister are staying at the Hope Center now, and will be going home to Liberia (I think - maybe it's Nigeria, I'm not sure) in a few days. Pray that the tumor doesn't come back, and that Comfort regains normal muscle control as the swelling goes down.

We've been enjoying all the babies we've had on the ward lately:

Babies!

2011-10-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

Prayer Room

2011-10-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

The other day I wrote a little about the 72-hour prayer room we set up for the nurses. We weren't sure how many people would want to participate, but every slot was full, and the hospital was covered in prayer for 72 hours straight! It was refreshing to come together like that and remember why we're here, doing what we're doing. It was also very unifying - everyone did more than just pray, we all left behind notes and verses and encouragement for the people who would come after us. Last night, when the 72 hours were up, we all got together outside on Deck 7 for a tea party to share our experiences from the past few days. I managed to take a few pictures before they had to take everything down and turn the area back into the storage room it was before.

sign-up sheet, with every slot filled

pictures of patients, surrounded by sticky-notes of prayers and verses

communion was set up the whole time

we are His hands and feet

prayers for people all over the world

tea party :)

Another day on the ward

2011-09-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

A missionary named Jon Erickson recently brought a group of his patients from the Hope Clinic in Guinea to the ship to have various operations. Jon is from America originally, but has lived in Africa for many years. He's really amazing with his patients - he's pretty much been living in the hospital with them while they're here, sleeping on the pallets under their beds, eating the African meals with them instead of going upstairs to the dining room, and translating for all of us on the ward who don't speak French. We've all had fun getting to know the Guinea patients - they're a wonderful group of people, and we'll be sad to say goodbye this Sunday when they go home. It's amazing how attached you can get to people that you can't even talk to. You can say a lot through facial expression and make-shift sign language. :)

Small victories from work today:

I had to take staples and sutures out of a little 7-year-old boy's scalp and face. Even after pre-medicating him with paracetamol and codeine, I expected him to cry at least a little bit. It's not fun for anyone to have staples and sutures removed, let alone a little boy who doesn't understand what's going on. But he was so brave! He didn't cry at all and held perfectly still while I carefully removed each one. I was praying that God would help me be gentle, and He did.

A little girl I was looking after today had to have her head bandage changed. Her incision had oozed a little bit, and there was some gauze stuck to her chin. When I tried to pull it off she immediately started whimpering. So I put a little saline on the old dressing, and sang her a song while I slowly soaked it off. In the end I got all of the old dressing off, the incision cleaned, and a new dressing neatly wrapped around her head.

The same little girl had to have her last dose of IV antibiotics today. She did NOT like her IV to be touched even though it was still working well, and she started crying and wiggling as soon as I came near her. Then I thought to give her my penlight to play with, and let her examine the inside of my mouth, nose and ear with it. That distracted her enough that she didn't notice me injecting the medicine in her IV.

I know those are just little things, but it's the the little things that matter the most sometimes. The best part was that both of those patients still had smiles and hugs to offer me at the end of the day. :)

72 hours

2011-09-28T01:11:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone for your encouragement and prayers! This week has been better I think, although busy.

Several of us on the wards have felt discouragement the past few weeks, so we've decided to do a 72-hour prayer room for the nurses. We've set up a corner of E ward (which is currently used for storage, rather than patients) as a prayer room, and all the nurses who want to participate have signed up for hour-long slots. It's our goal to cover the hospital in constant prayer for a solid 72 hours. Please join us in praying for our patients, their family members, and all the hospital staff. Everyone needs refreshment and to refocus on God and the real reason we are here. I got up early this morning for the 7:00 time slot, and as soon as I went in and sat down, I could feel such a sense of peace and God's presence. He is in this place, and He is with us. May I never forget that, no matter how burnt-out or frustrated or tired or discouraged I feel.

"And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."
~2 Corinthians 12:9-10

I will not be scorched

2011-09-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

Several times in the past week, I've wanted to update my blog but just couldn't find the words to say. I want to share stories of my experiences here, I want people back home to understand a little bit of what it's like, I wish you could all know the amazing patients and crew that I interact with every day. But sometimes I don't feel like writing heartfelt stories. Sometimes I feel like I don't have anything new to report. At the end of the day, it just feels like another day, nobody will want to hear about it, it would be boring to talk about it. You know - I got up, ate breakfast, went to work, took care of patients, got off work, took a shower, hung out with friends, read a book, ate dinner, called my boyfriend, checked my email, went to bed.... I have nothing to write.

Sometimes, even when there are interesting experiences to share, I just don't care about them. Sometimes I'm tired of having interesting experiences and just want to pack my bags and go home. I've felt like that a lot the past couple of weeks. And when I feel like that, I don't want to write because I don't want to be depressing. Did your mother ever tell you "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"? I haven't felt like writing anything nice, so I haven't written anything at all. I thought, "nobody wants to hear me complain. This blog is to share my experiences in Sierra Leone, not to complain about things." But I want to share what God is doing, both here in Sierra Leone and in my own heart, and how I'm feeling about things is part of that. If I ask people back home to pray for me, but don't tell them my struggles so they can pray about them, well where's the good in that? Also, I don't want to give the impression that this whole Africa thing is a walk in the park. Sometimes it's easy, I relish each day, and the time flies by. And other times it's really, really hard.

I think I'm burnt-out.

Not completely. Not to the point of giving up and going home early. But to the point of having to take things one painstakingly slow day at a time, taking a deep breath every morning and going through the motions of work and meals and spending time with friends, feeling like I'm wading through jello with a bag of rocks tied to my back. Am I being melodromatic? I'm sorry. Don't get me wrong - I know this is where I'm supposed to be, and I DO want to be here. But part of me really wishes that it was December and time to go home. And another part of me knows that when December arrives, I'm going to wonder where the time went. Too many conflicting emotions! You'd think I'd be used to that by now. I think I've been more emotional in the past 3 months than I have been in the past 3 years. I've lost count of how many times I've cried since I've been here, when before I could usually count on one hand the number of times I'd cried in a year.

The easiest times are when I'm with the patients. Then I remember why I'm here, and that it really is important. When a man who has lived with a giant tumor on his head all his life comes back to the ward from surgery and I hand him a mirror, and see his eyes light up with delight when he sees his reflection...when I do wound care on a lady who smiles up at me gratefully and says "Tenkhi!"...when I go to the Hope Center and sing and clap during worship service, praising Papa God alongside people who are so excited to see me, and always tell me when I leave "you come back tomorrow, yeah?"

Some of my thoughts lately have been along the lines of "why is this so hard? I thought this was where God wanted me to be." Today in my homework for Bible study, I read this: "Some of us with little previous battle experience have no idea why God is allowing us to go through such difficult times in a place we thought was His will. He's trying to make warriors out of us! Rise to the occasion!" (Beth Moore) So...I'm trying to rise to the occasion. I'm still homesick, I'm still kind of tired of it all...but I'm thankful to be here, and I hope God is using me somehow.

I've read this passage over and over again this past week:
"But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel,
'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you.'"
~Isaiah 43:1-2

Kind of fitting, I think. "When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched." I feel scorched. But I know God is with me.

This week's highlights

2011-09-11T04:42:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the picture I posted Wednesday, our noma patient has had his second surgery, and now has a new nose and roof of his mouth. The surgery involved cutting the pedicle flap away from the nose and unrolling it back onto his scalp, and releasing his tongue from the roof of his mouth. One of my coworkers had the opportunity to observe the surgery, and she said that the surgeon, Dr. Parker, was impressed by how clean everything was. He said "there's obviously been some excellent nursing care going on in the ward." We all gave ourselves a little pat on the back for that. ;-) The patient is just as much to be praised for how well he's doing. What he's gone through the past 3 weeks would be difficult for anyone, with tube feedings, living off of soft foods and ensure supplements, having his nose suctioned every 4 hours, and multiple dressing changes and mouth washes. But he's endured it all with a smile on his face and a cheerful wave every morning for the nurses, never complaining, and being more than compliant with every treatment. I wasn't on shift when he returned from his second surgery, but everyone said that he came back wearing the biggest grin yet, and asking for a mirror.

Monday a group of about 30 new people arrived on the ship, so there have been lots of new faces to get used to. This happens every couple of months, and it's always a little disorienting at first. The ship feels like a different place for awhile, but soon everybody gets used to each other again and routines continue. I'm a preceptor on the ward now, so I've been helping to orient some of the new nurses. It's reminding me of how out of place I felt when I first arrived, and how strange everything first seemed. Now the way we do things in the hospital has come to feel more normal, and those thoughts of "we would never do it this way at home" don't cross my mind nearly so often.

About a month ago I joined a women's Bible study here on the ship, and we've been going through Beth Moore's Esther study. Watching the lesson every Monday night with the other ladies has been a highlight of every week, and the daily "homework" has helped me stay in the Word more consistently. I was really excited to be in a Bible study like this, because the past few years I haven't had the ability to, due to moving around so much and working crazy nursing schedules. Since most of the women in the study work shifts, they show the lesson Monday mornings as well as evenings so that everybody has the chance to come.

In my time off I've been trying to sign up for more of the "Mercy Ministries," like the women's prison and Missionaries of Charity. Yesterday I joined a group going to visit an orphanage outside the city, called Fatima Home. The orphanage is run by a local couple who started it for war orphans about 10 years ago. Some of those original children are still there, and more have joined them since. Living on a piece of land outside of Freetown, the children are provided meals, clothes, beds, and an education. Exams are expensive in Sierra Leone, and the Mercy Ships crew recently collected a donation large enough to pay each child's school fees for a year! When we pulled up to the home in our land rovers yesterday, it was raining but the kids were all standing outside anyway, jumping up and down eagerly and waving, big smiles on their faces. We all crowded into the living room inside the couple's house, to get out of the rain. While we took seats in the chairs and couches around the perimeter of the room, all the kids settled on the floor. Denise, the lady leading our team, said "don't be shy kids, you can sit in our laps!" The kids stayed where they were on the floor and just looked at her, obviously confused. Then the man who runs the orphanage translated what Denise said and within seconds the floor was cleared and every lap was filled. :-) We all had fun cuddling the munchkins while Denise taught a lesson on the fruits of the spirit, with the translator's help. Then we sang some songs and gave the kids coloring pages and crayons. The time passed all too quickly, and soon it was time to load up and make the bumpy hour-long drive back to the ship. Hopefully I'll be able to go back again in a couple of weeks.

The rest of my free time this week has been filled with walks on the dock, admiring the sunsets after dinner, reading books, movie nights with friends, and calling home to make sure my family's safe amid all the Texas wildfires. It's strange to think that my time here is more than half-way over; sometimes the next 3 months seem like forever, and other times I feel like they're going to just fly by. I've been battling a little more homesickness and burnt-out feelings than usual this week, so I'd appreciate your prayers that I would make the most of the time I have left. I want to relish every opportunity I have here in Sierra Leone, but I know that come December, I'll be more than ready to see Texas again.

a new nose!

2011-09-07T16:07:00.001-07:00

Hospital Updates

2011-09-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

Max-fax has been slow the past few days, so D ward has been pretty quiet. They haven't been doing as many surgeries, but it should pick back up again shortly - I think we're waiting to get the anesthetists we need to do pediatric surgeries.

One of our general surgery patients, a lady who had a thyroidectomy, developed some complications and is now in the ICU. She came down with severe malaria, typhoid fever, and congestive heart failure-like symptoms. I cared for her the past 3 nights, and she stayed about the same over the weekend. Not doing any worse, but not really much better either after receiving antibiotics, diuretics, ACE-inhibitors and a blood transfusion. Please keep her in your prayers, that she will respond to the treatment and take a turn for the better soon. Also, typhoid is contagious and not all the nurses have received the vaccine. I have, thankfully, but please pray for the health of our nurses and everyone on the ship.

The man with the noma nose and palate reconstruction is going back for his second surgery tomorrow! He's been doing well, although losing weight. I'd lose weight too if my tongue was sutured to the roof of my mouth! We started him on nutritional supplements a couple of days ago, so hopefully he'll gain the weight back and his wounds will heal faster. Everyone's looking forward to his second surgery tomorrow, to release his tongue and replace the pedicle flap back on his scalp.

The plastic surgeon who was here at the beginning of the outreach returned this week for another round of plastics. The plastics patients take months to heal, and we finally sent the last ones home last week. Now we're about to fill up A ward again with a new set.

That's all for now. I just worked night shift the past 4 nights, and I'm tired!

Differences

2011-08-31T18:17:00.000-07:00

Working as a nurse on board the Africa Mercy has its own set of challenges and triumphs. After 12 weeks, many things have come to feel normal that are much different than working in a hospital back home. Here are some of the differences that are part of a "normal" work day:

Small spaces. The "nurses' station" consists of a desk with a computer for the charge nurse, and one counter beneath the medication cupboard. The nurses are always running into each other as we attempt to get our meds together, sign off charts, or just walk from one side of the ward to the other.

IV bags swaying as the ship rocks back and forth.

Praying with patients before surgery, praise and worship time every day, ward services on Sundays.

Lack of privacy. Men, women, children, and babies all together in the wards. All the patients and their family members in each other's business, listening to each other's conversations, helping take care of each other's babies. It really shows the cultural differences. Back home, my patients get grumpy if they have to be in a semi-private room, shared by two patients. Here, the few patients that get their own rooms for isolation precautions, don't like it at all. They usually prefer to be out in the ward with everybody else.

Language barriers. We have translators, but sometimes we need more than one. The other day I had to hunt down someone who spoke Mende, and it turned out to be another patient's family member. As I was doing some teaching with my patient, I spoke in English to the day volunteer, who spoke in Krio to the other patient's caregiver, who spoke in Mende to my patient. I'm never quite sure how much gets lost in translation.

Patients' family members sleeping on pallets underneath the patients' beds.

Creativity and flexibility. For example, making peanut butter and milk concoctions for NG feedings when we run out of ensure.

Living, eating, worshiping, and hanging out with my coworkers every single day, not just during our shifts.

Living in a cabin just a few steps down the hall from the ward where I work.

Getting a lunch break EVERY day....and coffee/tea breaks on slow days. :-)

Mixing up my own IV meds, instead of a pharmacist doing it.

Hanging curtains from magnetic hooks that stick to the ceiling.

Calculating drip rates, and constantly fiddling with IV drips that are running by gravity instead of through a pump.

Chatting with my patients and their family members until the wee hours of the morning when they don't feel like going to sleep.

Taking care of pediatric patients. This is a BIG difference for me, since I haven't done that since nursing school!

Always finding different brands and types of supplies for IV's, meds, dressings, etc. One week we had the IV catheters with retractable safety needles - that was exciting. Another time our betadine ointment was from Norway or someplace and I couldn't read the label - I had to open it and look at the medicine to be sure what it was.

Different terminology: calling tylenol "paracetamol" and the OR the "operating theatre"

Dancing around the ward with the kids singing "I like to move it, move it" or "Shake your body for Jesus, clap your hands for Jesus..."

Blowing bubbles and playing with balloons to keep the kids entertained

Making sure our patients understand how to use the toilet...some of them have never experienced indoor plumbing. One bathroom shared between 15 patients and their family members. Also, the plumbing runs on a vacuum system, which doesn't ALWAYS work...

Going on treasure hunts in the pharmacy late at night when we run out of meds and don't want to wake the pharmacist up.

Wearing many different "hats," not just that of a nurse, and especially on night shift. In one day I might be the nurse, nurse's assistant, respiratory therapist, lactation consultant, speech therapist, baby sitter...

Missionaries of Charity

2011-08-31T06:53:00.000-07:00

Today I signed up to go with a group to Missionaries of Charity, an organization founded by Mother Teresa which has missions all over the world. The one here in Sierra Leone is just a short drive down the road from the ship, so it didn't take long to get there. The mission is run by 4 sisters, who have taken a vow of poverty and care for the most destitute of the poor and sick. It isn't exactly a hospital, but one of the sisters is a nurse, and a doctor comes in weekly to prescribe medications. They have it set up into 3 wards: one for men, one for women, and one for mothers and babies. The people who live there have illnesses like malaria, HIV, TB, some are malnourished, some are developmentally delayed...

We were there for a couple of hours, which went by really quickly, but we had time to meet and visit with the men and women, cuddle a few babies, sing some songs, and do a craft with everyone. I received lots of smiles, hugs, and handshakes...and had a few good-natured laughs with the ladies when I attempted and failed to understand what they were saying. Ah, the ever-present challenges of a language barrier. ;-)

Life Goes On

2011-08-30T04:04:00.000-07:00

Life onboard the Africa Mercy continues to be busy. In addition to working shifts in the hospital every day, I've been spending time with friends, saying goodbye to many of them as they return home, and taking trips into Freetown. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks:

"Tea at ten" has become a tradition every night in the dining room

Goodbye party at The Country Lodge restaurant

Saying goodbye to sweet friends

Everyone gathers on the dock to wave goodbye

Spending time with patients at the Hope Center

Views of Freetown

Monday, Monday

2011-08-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

After enjoying a weekend off, I'm well-rested and back in the swing of things at work. Here's a glimpse into my day today on D Ward:

0625 - Tried not to fall or wake my bunkmate up as I got down from the top bunk, waited my turn for the bathroom, and stumbled my way through brushing my teeth and getting ready for work.
0640 - Ate breakfast upstairs in the dining room with the rest of the day crew, none of us feeling very social as we gulped down our coffee in half-asleep silence. DONUTS were a nice surprise this morning, instead of just the usual cereal and toast :)
0655 - Made the long commute ;-) to work down 2 flights of stairs to the hospital. Prayed with the night shift team, received handover report, checked all my charts, and made a list of things to do for each patient.
0730-0900 - Gave morning medications, tube feedings for my 2 patients with nasogastric tubes, mixed up infant formula for the little babies after their mothers breastfed them all they could, chlorhexidine mouthwashes for everyone after breakfast, and saline nebulizer for my man with a nasal trumpet.
0930 - Ward devotions / prayer and praise with the patients. Then had African praise songs stuck in my head for the rest of the day "Tell him tenki, tell him, tell Papa God tenki..."
1000-1200 - More scheduled meds, tube feedings, and mouth exercises. Wound care and dressing changes for 2 of my patients. One of them only took about 10 minutes, but the other dressing change lasted close to an hour. It was for the noma patient I wrote about the other day. He's doing great! I took out his nasal bolsters and NG tube today. I was mistaken, he doesn't have to be on tube feedings for 3 weeks. But his tongue is still sutured to the roof of his mouth, so he'll probably be drinking lots of ensure.
1200 - Lunch break! After lunch, said goodbye to 2 good friends who were about to head home to America.
1230-1400 - Discharged my 2 little cleft lip babies who were ready to go home. Through the help of the translators (and another patient's family member, who assisted us with a 3-way translation) I taught their mamas how to do the chlorhexidine mouthwashes, made sure they knew when their follow-up appointments were, and then sent one of the translators/day volunteers to take them down the gangway and out onto the dock. Then wrapped up all my "loose ends," checked some vital signs, and finished charting. Also made sure my pre-op patient was doing ok, still waiting for his surgery.
1400 - Prayed with the oncoming evening shift and gave handover report to the nurses taking over.
1430-1530 - Took the patients who were able up the stairs and outside onto Deck 7 to get some much-needed fresh air.

Back at it again in the morning!

Noma

2011-08-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

This week I've been learning more about noma, a horrible disease that is almost never seen back home. It's a gangrenous infection that begins with sores in the mouth and proceeds to eat through tissue in the face, reaching the bone and often killing its victims. It usually affects children and is related to lowered immune systems, malnutrition, poor hygiene, unsafe drinking water, and having recently had other illnesses like malaria, scarlet fever, and chicken pox. Some children survive the disease, and without reconstructive surgery, go through life with severely deformed faces, often becoming social outcasts.

Right now we have 2 noma patients on D Ward, a man and a woman both in their 40's I think. When the woman came to us she kept her face hidden behind a veil at all times. Now she's recovering well from her surgery, is regaining feeling and movements in parts of her face that she hasn't been able to use in decades, and she smiles and waves at everyone who comes in the ward. This week I got to care for her when she had her NG tube taken out and started eating soft food, removed all the sutures and staples from her incisions, and began her facial nerve exercises. Her wound care yesterday was a long, tedious task, but definitely worth it when her eyes lit up and she gave me a big thumbs-up afterward. I'm excited she'll get to go home in a few days, but everyone will miss her on the ward.

Today I also was assigned the other noma patient, who had a much more complicated surgery. The disease had destroyed his nose and the roof of his mouth, and what Dr. Gary did to reconstruct his face really amazes me. I had a general idea earlier this week of what the surgery entailed, but when I helped change his dressing today I understood it a lot better. They basically took a flap of tissue from the man's scalp to form a whole new nose, and grafted it in place on his face. Back home they probably would have done a free flap, which is where you completely remove the tissue from the original site. They don't do free flaps here, because the patients' nutritional definciencies and the difficulty in maintaining a sterile environment during recovery here in Africa lower the chances of the graft surviving. Instead, they did a pedicle flap. That's where they cut a flap out of the scalp, but left it attached so that it keeps its original blood source. The end of the flap was used to form the nose, but the rest of the tissue is just rolled up and kept moist in a sterile dressing, connecting the new nose to its original blood source on the top of the head. After 3 weeks, the flap will be cut away from the new nose, unrolled, and placed back down where it originally was on the scalp. The section of the scalp where the tissue for the new nose was taken from won't have its original tissue replaced, so they took a skin graft from the man's thigh to cover that portion. Sounds complicated, right? It gets better. To make a new soft palate, the surgeon stitched the patient's tongue to the roof of his mouth. It'll stay like that for 3 weeks, at which point a new layer of tissue will have grown over the roof of the mouth and the tongue can be released back down. Is that not AMAZING? Who came up with the ideas for these kinds of surgeries? Even more amazing is the patient's reaction to all this. Yes, he's lived with a horrible disfigurement most of his life, but the 3 weeks of recovery he has to go through is awful. His face looks worse at the moment than it did before, there are only a few layers of gauze between his skull and the environment, he can hardly communicate, and he has to eat through a tube for 3 weeks. And yet he's incredibly calm and relaxed about the whole thing, not even complaining of pain! Please keep this man in your prayers over the next few weeks, that he would continue to be at peace, that the nose graft will take and everything will remain free from infection.

August on D Ward

2011-08-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

So, I've been meaning to blog for awhile now. I know I'm really behind, and I'm sorry. I just don't know what's happening to August! I keep having to look at my calendar, because I can't believe it's already the 18th! Time seemed to go by really slowly in June and July, but not this month! Maybe because I was sick in bed so much the first few weeks I was here. Also, many of the good friends I've made here on the ship are leaving this month, and we've been frantically trying to pack in all the good times we can before we have to say goodbye.

Work has been a lot of fun lately. For a couple of weeks, our max-fax surgeries slowed way down, and D ward was very quiet. During that time I worked a lot of shifts in the other wards, which was fun but I missed max-fax. Dr. Gary Parker, who does the more complicated max-fax surgeries, got back from vacation a week or 2 ago, so now D ward is up and running again. We've had a lot of cleft lips and palates lately, which means lots of cute kids to cuddle and play with. When there are babies wandering around everywhere on the ward, I get used to just picking them up whenever, patting their heads when they walk by, squeezing their chubby little thighs...I get so used to it, that today when one of the missionary kids walked by me in the dining room I almost reached out and ruffled his hair. I stopped myself in time though. ;-)

I've been overwhelmed whenever I think about blogging, because there are so many stories I'd like to share, and I just haven't had time to write them down. So for now, I'll just stick with pictures.

if cleft palates were purely genetic, wouldn't they both have been born with one? but only one of these twins had to have surgery. interesting...

everyone loves bubbles

when i have babies, i'm going to carry them around like this

baLOON!

out on deck 7

I'll do my best to update again soon. If y'all could continue praying for my neck, I'd appreciate it. Whiplash seems to take a very long time to get over, and I'm still not sleeping well because of it.

prison ministry

2011-08-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday I went with a group of 16 or 17 women from the ship to visit the women's prison in Freetown. The prison ministry alternates every other week between the women's and men's prisons. I really didn't know what to expect, but we all had a good time! We did a Bible lesson, sang some praise songs with the inmates, and then worked on crafts/activity pages and just spent time with them for a couple of hours. It was fun getting to know the inmates, even though we couldn't understand each other very well. The women I sat with enjoyed making fun of my miserable attempts at speaking Krio. ;-) I'm not sure exactly what the inmates were in prison for, but we were told that it's often for debt or financial issues. One of the ladies was trying to explain to my friend Rachael why she was there, but because of the language barrier she couldn't find the right words. Rachael told her "It doesn't matter, I'll be your friend anyway" and the lady almost started crying.

Traffic was terrible on the way back to the ship on Saturday - we drove down lots of little streets full of pot-holes for about an hour and a half. I think that during all the bouncing up and down I injured my neck, because for the past 3 days my neck has been hurting more and more and getting really stiff. Right now I can barely turn my head, and I've had a throbbing headache all day. Please, please pray for it to get better soon! My shift on the ward was hard to handle today, with energetic kids climbing up my legs and squealing in my ears - I just kept getting tenser and tenser until I took a break, ran down the hall to my cabin and cried for about 10 minutes. Then I had a cup of tea and was able to get through the rest of my shift. But I've called in sick for tomorrow, and will probably go to the crew clinic in the morning. I'd really appreciate your prayers right now.

B, C, D, and Hope Center

2011-07-30T02:29:00.000-07:00

This week was so packed and busy, it seemed to go by really fast! I worked day shift (7am-3pm) Monday-Thursday, and evening shift (2-10pm) Friday. I was a ping-pong ball this week, bouncing around from ward to ward. Monday I got pulled to B ward for the first time, which is where the general surgery patients are - mostly hernias. Tuesday I worked in D ward (where I'm usually assigned, max-fax), but it was so slow I went back to B half-way through my shift to help them out. Wednesday I was in B again, and Thursday I worked in C. Up til about a week ago, C ward has been left empty. Now we have overflow, low-acuity max-fax patients in there. That day consisted mostly of wound care and dressing changes for me, then playing with balloons and bubbles with the kids once my work was done. Friday I was back in B. It was a good week, but I did feel a little displaced. D ward has come to feel like my home, and I missed it a little. After work we had various meetings and worship services, so I didn't have a whole lot of down time this week. Here are some more pictures from the wards this week:

worship time on D ward

Ursina with some of the kids

Natalie (the max-fax team leader) playing with Lamin

2 of our little ones making friends

Juanita, me, Hannah, and Beth

crazy B ward nurses, with 2 of our translators and one of our patients

Despite the business of the week, I did have time one day to go visit the patients at the Hope Center. That's our outpatient facility down the road from the docks. When patients live too far away to go home, they go stay at the Hope Center to wait for their surgery or follow-up appointments. Going there definitely lifts my spirits - as soon as I walked through the gate I was surrounded by kids who wanted to talk and play and arm wrestle and hold my hands and sit in my lap.

this week's recap

2011-07-23T01:55:00.000-07:00

Well, my walk into town to visit the market on Monday didn't happen. Sunday night, about half of our group that went to the beach came down with a nasty case of food poisoning and we spent the day in our beds. Our sweet friend Rachael became our private nurse, and visited everyone in their cabins bringing us gatorade, bread, and encouragement.

My stomach's been a little upset all week, but I was well enough Tuesday to go back to work for night shift. All was quiet on the ward for 3 nights in a row - which was good for our patients, but made it very hard to stay awake! I got a lot of reading done this week, while listening to the heavy breathing of sleeping patients and their family members. The only "exciting" thing that happened at work this week was finding my little 4-year old (see the last picture) asleep without his bandage on, and having to get my coworkers to hold him still for me while I did a dressing change at 3 am.

Last week the photographer took some pictures in the wards, so here are a few of the patients I've been caring for the past couple of weeks. The first 3 are out on deck 7, where we take the patients out for an hour every afternoon to get some fresh air, and to let the kids run off some of their energy.

alive AND well

2011-07-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

Thank you everybody for all your prayers for my health! After lying in bed for what seemed like forever, I finally got back to work this past Tuesday. It took me a few days to really feel myself again, but by Thursday I was feeling back to normal. We had some pretty adorable kids in the ward this week, so I got to do a lot of playing and baby-holding in between dressing changes and administering medications. When preparing for Mercy Ships, I didn't realize I'd be getting more than just a taste of pediatrics. The kids and adults are all together in the wards, rather than separated, so I don't know until I show up for my shift if I'll be caring for babies, kids, teenagers, or adults. Usually it's a mix. I was kind of scared of the idea of taking care of kids - I haven't done that since college. But it's not as scary as I thought it would be, and there's usually someone on shift who has some pediatric experience, to use as a resource.

Since I worked several days, then was sick for a week, then worked several more days, I hadn't really had a chance to get off of the ship in about 2 weeks. I walked on the dock a little and went out on deck for some fresh air, but I didn't really leave the ship for the first half of this month. I was starting to go a little stir-crazy, but had a chance to get away this weekend and even spend the night off the ship. A group of us planned an overnight trip to John Obey beach, about an hour and a half away. It was lovely to get away for a day, get lots of sun, walk up and down the beach, swim in the ocean, and just relax and listen to the waves breaking. By the time we came back to the Africa Mercy this afternoon we were sunburned, hungry, tired, and covered in a layer of salt, sunscreen, sweat, and dust...so we were ready to be back! After dinner and a shower we joined several people in the International Lounge for an impromptu time of worship, which was a great way to end the weekend. I get to enjoy another day off tomorrow, and am planning a walk into town to visit the craft market and eat lunch with a friend at The Crown Bakery, which I've heard good things about. After that I'll head back to the ward for night shift the rest of the week!

Here are a few pictures of our mini-vacation at the beach:

vitamin D!

storm rolling in over the mountains

lovely long walks on the beach

posing in a fishing boat we found

snacks and books

our home for the night

the view from our mudhut home

alive, but not so well

2011-07-09T06:16:00.000-07:00

Hello friends. I've been getting questions along the lines of "are you still alive?" lately. Yes, I'm still alive. Just not quite myself. Monday I got hit hard with some kind of nasty bug that resulted in 5 days of fever, chills, general achiness, headache, and sore throat. I've been to the doctor, started antibiotics, and have been drinking lots of water and getting lots of rest. A crazy amount of rest, actually. I'm really not used to this. I'm hardly ever sick, but after spending the better part of a week lying in bed, I'm still exhausted. The fever's gone down a little, but my throat still looks like raw hamburger meat. Hopefully I'll be back on my feet again soon, and can go back to the ward. I feel guilty for missing work, but am very thankful for the friends I've made who force me back into bed time and time again when I've deluded myself into thinking I'm well enough to get up.

But enough about that. Here are some pictures I found on the hospital transfer drive. We aren't allowed to take pictures in the hospital, but we can pull the ones that the official photographers take and share them on our blogs.

This first one is from the 4th of July barbecue we had out on the dock:

This is what happens when we take our patients to surgery. We sit them down on a bench outside the OR, and when the OR nurse and a translator come to fetch them, we all lay our hands on them and pray for the surgery. I love this.

These are 2 of my lovely coworkers, Ruth and Ursina, in D ward where I work.

Please pray for my continued healing, so I can get back to work. I miss the patients.

a taste of perspective

2011-07-05T06:02:00.000-07:00

Working on the max-fax ward involves giving a lot of tube feedings. Many of our patients are unable to eat for a week after their surgery, since they've had their jaws and faces operated on, and they come back from the operating room with an NG (nasogastric) tube in place and require feedings every 3 hours. We usually use Ensure for our tube feedings - that's a milkshake-like nutrition drink that comes in cans. About a week after I started working in the ward, we ran out of liquid Ensure and had to start using powder instead. That meant that for every tube feeding, instead of just calculating the total amount based on the patient's weight, we first had to calculate how much water and how much powder to use, then mix it up really well to get all the lumps out so it wouldn't clog the tubes. Kind of annoying, right? At least, it seemed annoying until we ran out of Ensure powder too. I was working night shift, and we were down to one can - enough for our 2100 feedings, but there wouldn't be any left for the next day. We hunted in all the other wards and the pharmacy, but to no avail - there was no Ensure left in the hospital. So we paged the dietician, and she got to spend her Saturday night inventing a substitute. A couple hours later she showed up in the ward with a recipe that included milk, peanut butter, sugar, liquid multivitamin, and fiber powder. Yummy! We're glad our patients won't starve, but this new concoction is kind of tricky. The fiber powder doesn't exactly dissolve, and it tends to settle to the bottom of the feeding bags and get clogged in the tubes. That means that while the feedings are going, they need to be checked very often. We asked our ward supervisor how long it would be before we'd get more Ensure. She replied that apparently, there's some in a shipment container sitting on the ship that's docked in front of us. So near, and yet so far away.

All this makes me very thankful for creativity, God's provision, and coworkers who make the best of difficult situations instead of complaining about inconveniences.

views from deck 8

2011-06-28T06:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures I took from Deck 8 (the top of the ship) the other day. It was kind of cloudy, but that's just going to get worse now that we're getting into rainy season.

Port side, toward the ocean. When it's not cloudy it's nice to sit out and watch the sun set over the water. There are lawn chairs up on the deck and always someone sitting out there.

Starboard side. This is the dock. You can see the gangway up toward the front of the ship, and behind it those tents are where they do admissions before bringing patients on board to the hospital. All those white vehicles belong to Mercy Ships.

Looking past all the containers on the pier, you can see the mountains in the background.

On the other side of that funnel thing in the bottom right of this picture, is a corner of the dock where it's nice to sit and listen to the waves crash against the rocks. You can smell smoke from people's cooking fires, and sometimes hear kids playing on the beach. I was sitting there with some friends the other day and a man came rowing by in a little boat and called out to us: "Hello, good people! How are you? Thank you for the good work you are doing here."

Freetown

a walk around Freetown

2011-06-26T04:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from my walk in town last Sunday. We have to be very careful of the pictures we take, due to cultural sensitivity, so I don't have very many with people in them. Because of recent wars, and journalists coming and taking pictures of whatever and whoever they want, many Sierra Leoneans become offended when people try to take pictures. I did manage to get a few though:

This is the famous Cotton Tree in the center of town. It's said that this is the site where the settlers of Freetown, former African American slaves, first gathered for a thanksgiving service when they established the colony in 1792.

An old church down the street from the Cotton Tree. There's a courtyard around it with beautiful trees and other plants. We wanted to go in and see it, but the gate was locked, so we just had to look over the wall from the outside.

A view down the street. You can see the Cotton Tree behind the building to the right.

This street was surprisingly empty - most of them were very busy and filled with cars, motorcycles, poda-podas, and pedestrians. Poda-podas are public transportation vans that you can rent out for a group or just flag down and join whoever's already crammed inside.

Toward the end of our walk we went through a quiet, garden-like area called the Bishop's Court. These are the old ruins of some big house.

Before going back to the ship we stopped by the Hope Center and visited with the patients there. The Hope Center is an outpatient facility where many of our patients stay if they're going to need to come back to the ship for treatment in a few weeks and live too far away to go home, or if kids are malnourished and need to gain some weight before they can have surgery.

ferry ride

2011-06-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

Thank you to anyone who's been praying for my health. This past week I was pretty wiped out, and when I wasn't working in the ward I was just sleeping a lot. It seems to have worked though, because I'm feeling much better. I finally got my computer set up to use the wi-fi here, and uploaded some pictures. These are from the day I arrived, on the ferry ride across the harbor.

travel-weary and happy to have finally arrived

just some random ships that we passed by

the Africa Mercy, all lit up

prayer updates

2011-06-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

Thank you to those who prayed about the O2! They must have fixed the problem, because surgeries went as scheduled today. We sent 6 patients to the OR from my ward today - I work in D Ward, which is the Maxillo-facial unit, or "max/fax."

I'd appreciate prayers for good health. Over 400 crew members living quite literally on top of each other turns this place into a petri dish, and I've come down with a cold that's been going around.

still adjusting

2011-06-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Yes, I'm still alive. Sorry I haven't blogged recently. It's been a very busy week, and the times that my schedule's not packed, I'm completely worn out. Last Tuesday and Wednesday were full of meetings and paperwork, Thursday and Friday were my orientation shifts on the ward. Saturday I took a day to read, rest, and work on paperwork.

Sunday I was going stir-crazy after not having been off the ship all week, so I went for a walk in Freetown with some new friends. The streets are very busy, dirty, and crowded, but it was good to get out and stretch my legs. We saw the famous Cotton Tree (google it) in the center of town, and a church nearby that was established in 1808. I was thankful for the people I went out with, because at one point one of them grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the way of a car, which passed by within a couple of inches of me. We walked through the craft market, but it was emptier than usual, so I'm told, it being Sunday.

Some first impressions of work on the ward: every change of shift the nurses all pray together, for each other and for the patients. When taking a patient to surgery the ward nurse and OR nurse both pray with him beforehand. We sing songs with our patients in the middle of the day, show movies, and take them outside on Deck 7 to get some fresh air at 3 pm. While people in the western culture value individuality and privacy and would hate to even be in a shared room, the Sierra Leoneans are all about community and being in each other's lives, and having them all in the same room (ward) isn't a problem at all. When I go to work at home I usually hit the ground running as soon as I clock in, and have a million things to do all day long. Here we might have a few meds to give, tube feedings and dressing changes to do, but there is much more time available to develop relationships and spend time with our patients.

That's it for now. I'll try to post again soon. One difficulty we encountered today was a problem with the air compressors on the ship, resulting in no oxygen supply in the operating room, thus no surgeries today. Pray that the problem is resolved quickly. Thanks friends!

getting adjusted

2011-06-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I think I've gotten over the time change now, but all this orientation has me worn out. Today was lots more paperwork, learning the hospital charting system, and taking a tour of the hospital part of the ship. I'm not ALWAYS lost around here, but do a good amount of wandering around. I won't be able to get my laptop registered to use the internet until next week, so probably won't be posting any pictures until then. I haven't had time to take any pictures yet anyway. I went up to the very top of the ship today to see the swimming pool - yesterday it was raining so we didn't go outside to see it. With the rocking of the ship back and forth, the water in the pool looked like one of those wave pools they have at water parks. Could be interesting, trying to swim laps in it. There was a beautiful view of the city from the pool, so I'll be going up there again just to take pictures sometime.

Tomorrow I'll have my first shift in the ward, with a preceptor. After that I'm sure I'll have more to write about. Right now I'm going to go find a quiet place to relax. Thank you for your prayers!

safely arrived

2011-06-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

I'M ALIVE!!!

Of course, if you have facebook, you probably already know that by now.

The last 2 days were spent traveling from Texas, to New York, to Brussels, to Freetown. Besides an hour delay on one of my flights, there were no problems in any of the airports. AND all my luggage made it to the same place I did! :-) Getting from the airport in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to the ship was a bit of an adventure. There were 8 of us coming in to the airport at the same time, and we all found each other and were met by 2 drivers who were going to take us and our luggage to the ferry. The airport is across the harbor from where the Africa Mercy is docked, and to go by land would take much longer than the ferry. On the way to the ferry, the car I was in ran out of gas. There weren't exactly any Shell stations in sight, so we were in a bit of a pickle. Our driver, a Sierra Leonean, flagged down a man riding a motorcycle, and hopped on the back with him to go in search of fuel. The rest of us were left to sit in the car on the side of the road. There were some people across the street staring at us, and adorable little kids smiling and waving and yelling something in their language. We found out later that they were saying "white man! White man!" After about 15 minutes our driver returned with enough gas to get us the rest of the way to the ferry. The ferry ride was nice. About an hour long, and we could go out on deck and enjoy the breeze. We saw the Africa Mercy as we went by, but had to be picked up by someone farther on down the coast where the ferry took us to. The drive from the ferry to the ship wasn't a very far distance, but took awhile because of traffic. They told us that Freetown is a city for 200,000 people, but has a population of abut 2 million. Think small roads crowded with trucks, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians, with no traffic signs or stoplights. Lots of honking horns. People out on the streets selling just about anything - sodas, loaves of bread, lanterns, shoes.

Finally on board the ship, we got registered, had ID badges made, had some dinner, and went to bed. Today has been information overload with orientation, paperwork, and getting accounts set up online and in the crew bank. The rest of the week will be more orientation, and next week I'll be on my own working as a nurse in the hospital. I'm still kind of lost around here, but we'll have a tour of the ship this afternoon.

Praising God for safe travel and friendly people! :-)

current prayer needs

2011-06-09T06:15:00.000-07:00

As Sunday quickly approaches, I have many things to pray about, and would like prayer for. Two big ones come to mind:

First, pray for everything to go smoothly with my travel. That I'll pack everything I need, but be concise. That I won't lose my passport, money, or any of my travel documents. That my luggage will all arrive to the same place I do (lots of people lose their luggage, so I'm preparing for that possibility). That I'll find where I need to go in the airports and flights won't be delayed to the point of missing other flights. And above all, that I will represent Christ to the people I travel with, and make the most of every opportunity for the gospel (Col. 4:5-6).

Second, please pray for my health. I woke up Sunday morning with a sore throat that still hasn't gone away, and I don't quite feel myself. I've been loading up on vitamin C, drinking lots of hot tea, and getting as much sleep as I can. I'd really like to be on the mend by the time I fly out. Also pray that I don't have any crazy side effects from the anti-malaria medicine I started taking last week. I'm on Larium, and common side effects are anxiety, agitation, horrible nightmares, and hallucinations. They say the longer you're on the medicine, the greater your chances of having some of these side effects, so this will be an on-going prayer for me as I continue to take it over the next 6 months. If I do go off the deep end from taking it, it won't be the end of the world; I can see the crew physician on-board and he can switch me over to Doxycycline if necessary.

Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement!

take nothing for granted

2011-06-08T18:24:00.001-07:00

There are some questions that we've been asked a lot (and have asked the people we've met) during FMS this week. Thing's like where we're from, what we do, how we heard about Mercy Ships, when we'll be going to Africa, what our job will be on the ship, how long we'll be there, etc. Kind of like your first week at college when you ask and answer all the "get to know you questions" over and over again.

Answering the question "how did you find out about Mercy Ships?" has caused me to look back and see how God has worked in my life and on my heart from a very early age.

I don't really remember ever NOT knowing about Mercy Ships. My mom had the opportunity to tour one of the ships, with me in tow, when it was at the port in Houston when I was very small, and she told me about the ministry as I was growing up. Then when I was eleven, I started attending a Christian summer camp every year in the Texas hill country. The first year (or maybe the 2nd, I'm not quite sure) that I went to Camp Buckner I remember meeting a girl in my cabin named Annie Fadely whose parents worked with Mercy Ships. I don't remember talking to her much about it, but it stuck in the back of my mind even though I haven't seen or heard from her any in the past 15 years. I didn't really learn anything more about Mercy Ships until 8 or 9 months ago, when I started thinking about looking for some short-term medical mission work to do and Mercy Ships immediately popped into my mind. Reflecting back on all this just reminds me to not take anything for granted. Who would have thought that it mattered what other little girls I met during a week at summer camp when I was eleven years old? But God knew I would be embarking on this adventure one day, and He put me in a camp cabin with someone who would be instrumental in planting seeds of thought in my mind about it. The neat part is, Annie's mom Angie Fadely still works for Mercy Ships in the Human Resources department here at the IOC, and I got to meet her on Monday, talk with her and tell her my story. I also found out that before the Fadelys joined Mercy Ships, they had toured the ship Anastasis at the port in Houston in 1989. I have a hunch that was probably around the same time my mother got to tour the ship. Coincidence? I think not.

farewell, Temple

2011-06-06T18:41:00.000-07:00

Well, today was the day. I spent the last month, and especially the last week, preparing for this day. Life has been a hectic jumble of family visits, saying goodbye to friends, getting travel documents in order, taking care of business like banking and medical insurance, finding as much time to spend with Pat as I could around his new job, shopping, organizing, and packing. Needless to say, sleep has been close to the bottom of the to-do list. I'm exhausted.

Today I finished cramming everything I had in Temple (minus a bookshelf and desk) into my car and drove 3 hours north-east to The Middle of Nowhere, Texas. I'm not sure if I'm in Garden Valley or Lindale, but either way it's a tiny town close to Tyler, where the Mercy Ships International Operations Center (IOC) is located. I'll be here all week for the Foundations of Mercy Ships program (FMS). I feel like I'm at summer camp or a retreat - the IOC is on a large piece of land with a warehouse where medical supplies are collected, HR buildings, a dining room, dorms, pool, cafe, meeting rooms, gym, cabins, and I don't know what all else. Oh, and they raise livestock here too, so there are pastures with different animals. Lots of trees, with walking trails all over the place. And wild hogs. They warned us about the hogs.

This week will be spent in classes and seminars and meetings, learning more about the history and mission of Mercy Ships and things to expect when I join the ship, getting to know HR people and other volunteers and hopefully getting some much-needed rest. It's a treat to have a normal schedule, if only for one week, where I have somewhere to be at the same time every morning and the option of going to bed early at night. And to have some time to just sit and think, read my Bible, pray, and crack open my neglected journal. Maybe take a few walks. Hopefully not run into any angry wild hogs. ;-)

In one week from now I'll be in Africa. It doesn't seem quite real. Hasn't sunk in yet. Your prayers are much appreciated, my friends.

staying in touch

2011-06-01T10:12:00.001-07:00

People keep asking me how they'll be able to keep up with me while I'm in Sierra Leone, so I thought it was time to give y'all that information.

I WILL have internet access - there are computers on the ship, and I'll be bringing my laptop with me. So I'll be able to contact people through email and facebook, and will be posting updates to this blog. I will NOT be able to Skype or use any other video chat, or download large attachments. So just keep it to simple, old-fashioned emails, ok? And if you want to share any pictures with me, post them to facebook and tell me to look at them there, instead of attaching them in emails.

I don't have an international phone plan, so won't be able to use my cell phone for 6 months. The ship has a US based satellite phone system, and I think there are phones in the cabins. I'll just need to buy phone cards to use to call home.

Snail mail will be sent to the International Operations Center in Texas and then forwarded to the ship. Here's the address:

Ruth Daniel

Mercy Ships IOC

M/V Africa Mercy - Surgical Ward

PO Box 2020

Lindale, TX

75771-2020

I love getting letters, but just know that it could take several weeks for mail to reach West Africa. Also, don't send anything heavy unless it's really worth it, cause I'll have to pay $0.55 per ounce for anything over 1 ounce. Any packages that are sent will need to have a detailed list of all contents on the outside. Otherwise they'll be subject to inspection and/or refusal of shipment, and Mercy Ships could be fined. Click here for more staying-in-touch details, and for a list of hazardous materials NOT to send.

bon voyage

2011-05-31T14:30:00.000-07:00

Last week, instead of having our usual Friday night Bible study, Pat and our friends threw me a going-away party :-)

the ladies...and Chris

crazy boys

as a lovely surprise, my parents came down for the night :)

my boyfriend is wonderful.

the end.

the clock is ticking

2011-05-25T13:42:00.000-07:00

How is May almost over?!? I finished my contract at Scott & White hospital the end of April, so haven't been working the past 4 weeks, but I seem to have been even busier during my "vacation." Preparing for Africa, visiting family and friends, and spending time with Pat have made this month fly by. I'll be leaving Temple on June 6 for a week of training and seminars east of Dallas, and leaving America June 12 for 6 months of service in Sierra Leone. Getting more excited and nervous as each day passes, and trying not to develop anxiety over leaving my honey. I'm so glad for this opportunity, but it's going to be a tough 6 months. To live is certainly an awfully big adventure.

2010 was a crazy year

2011-04-26T06:09:00.001-07:00

Once upon a time, a young nurse came down with a case of wanderlust. She could find no cure for this malady but to quit her job, stuff all her worldly belongings into her car, and drive off into the sunset to find adventure.

(this is actually a picture of a sunrise, but we can pretend)

During her travels the nurse learned many things...like flexibility and self-confidence in her career, how to be more outgoing than came naturally to her, how to drive her car on icy roads without crashing, and how to snowboard. She never did crash the car, but the snowboarding part didn't turn out so well.

After losing her job and getting kicked out of her apartment, the crippled traveler limped home to rest and recuperate with her family's loving support.

Three months later her body was healed and her brain was bored. The combination of her increasing restlessness and decreasing bank account sent the nurse to central Texas. It wasn't quite where she wanted to be, but she was thankful for her job.

Over the next few months, her conversations with God went something like this:

"I'll work this job, but only for a few months."

"Ok, I'll stay a little longer, but I don't really need community."

"Maybe it would be nice to have friends after all, but I'm not putting down any roots."

"Well, a few roots wouldn't be so bad, but I'm not going to date anyone."

You see where this is going.

So, this adventure-seeking, root-shunning traveler was having a lovely time with new friends, working hard and planning where the road would take her next...when someone rather unexpectedly caught her eye.

And unbeknownst to her, she had caught his eye as well. These two were both very cautious in the area of relationships and content to get to know each other as friends, so it took a couple more months for anything to happen between them.

Finally the village matchmaker...er...I mean, their good friend Cheryl, got impatient and took matters into her own hands.

With Cheryl's relentless "encouragement," the two friends became more than just friends on January 1, 2011.

It was pretty much the Best New Year's Ever.

getting my ducks in a row

2011-04-22T00:16:00.000-07:00

God is so good! I needed to have at least 75% of my finances raised by the end of this month, and I just found out today that I have close to 100% already. :-)

The past couple of weeks have been full. Besides working full-time at the hospital and spending time with Pat, I've also purchased my round-trip ticket to Africa, bought the malaria medicine I'll need to start taking a few weeks before I leave, been to the dentist and had a cavity filled (yuk!), gotten 6 vaccines (I'm finally finished getting shots!), been to the eye doctor, bought 6 months worth of contacts and a new pair of glasses, renewed my nursing license and CPR certification....and I feel like there's more, but I can't remember it all because it's 2:30 AM and I'm in a constant state of sleep deprivation.

Learning to trust God more and more every day.

preparing for africa

2011-04-18T00:41:00.000-07:00

Around the same time I was getting more settled in Temple renewing my nursing contract and getting to know new friends at church, I was also busy applying to serve with the charity Mercy Ships in Sierra Leone. It was a lengthy application, but I finally got it all sent in and at the beginning of November I was accepted to work as a ward nurse on board the hospital ship Africa Mercy for 6 months starting in June! Ever since I spent a month working in a mission hospital in Zimbabwe 5 years ago, I've been hoping for another medical missions opportunity, and am so excited to be returning to Africa!

Anyway...that's another reason I've been dead to the blogging world these past few months. In-between my regular nursing job here in Temple and spending as much time as possible with Pat, I've been preparing for this next adventure. So far I've raised a large portion of the finances I'll need, and this week should have my plane tickets purchased.

Getting all my travel immunizations has been a chore. I discussed it with my doctor a few months ago, and she suggested going to the health department to get my shots, since they're more expensive in the doctor's office and my insurance doesn't cover adult immunizations. After calling around to various travel clinics and health departments, I drove 45 minutes up to Waco to get my first round of shots. Technically I could have gotten all my shots at once, but the idea of getting stuck 6 times in one day just isn't a very pleasant thought. I'd rather not risk a drug reaction, and quite frankly, I don't think my deltoids could handle that many needles at once. So last week I went to get the most important immunization - Yellow Fever. It's the only one that's required (all the others are just suggested, and I'm getting them to be on the safe side). I didn't think much of it until the nurse handed me my yellow WHO card (the form that comes with your passport that you document all your health information on) and said "Now, be very careful not to lose this. Not only will it get you INTO Sierra Leone, it will also get you OUT. If you misplace it, you'll have a hard time getting home." Wow. Scary thought.

yes, i'm still alive

2011-04-16T01:32:00.001-07:00

so...i realize i've been MIA from the blogging world for even longer this time. a picture's worth a thousand words, so long story short:

i dare you

2010-12-05T12:59:00.000-08:00

hello, little neglected blog. sorry i've been MIA for the past month. things have been a little crazy. i guess i'm due for a "life update." i have a pressing appointment to get to (well, really i'm just late for my Sunday afternoon nap), so i'm gonna stick with the short version for now.

first of all, i have a dare for anyone who might be reading this. i dare you to tell God you're not going to do something, to say to Him "no, never, not me." seriously, just try it. He has a wacky sense of humor. although i'm not in the habit of shaking my fist at the sky and saying no to God, i have definitely had the "not me, never, no way" attitude with some things before that is basically the same as saying no to God. when i make those decisions before even consulting with Him, without even praying about things, but then later try my hardest to get my life aligned with His will, i find that His will often takes me right back to the thing i had already decided against. and then i have no choice but to throw up my hands, laugh at myself, and go where He takes me. a few examples:

when i went to school out of state, i had no intention of returning to Texas, except on vacations to visit family. over the course of 4 years God changed my mind, and after graduation i wound up in Austin, Texas for 2 years.

from my very first anatomy & physiology class to the day i walked across that stage, i hated cardiology. i had to study the heart twice as much as anything else to understand it, and i vowed never to be a cardiology nurse. those 2 years i lived in Austin were spent as a nurse on a cardiology/telemetry floor.

when i first heard of the concept of travel nursing my senior year of college, i thought "that will never be me, it's a crazy idea, i would definitely hate that kind of life." i've been a travel nurse for over a year now.

in June, 2010 i took a job in Temple, Texas - it was the first job offer i got after 3 months of unemployment due to a broken ankle, and i was getting desperate for work. i arrived in Temple, took a look around, and immediately thought "yeah, i'll stick this out for my 13-week commitment, then i'm outta here. this is not the town for me." after a very hectic summer i didn't have the energy to look for another job, so i extended my contract, thinking "3 more months - i'll save up some money, then head to New Mexico or someplace." well, the 3 months have gone by very quickly, and i'm blown away by how much has happened in such a short amount of time. to an outsider looking in on my life it may not look like much has happened, but it really seems like it has - in my life, in my heart, in my relationship with God and with new friends He has given me. so...long story short, i'm staying in Temple...for another 3 months :)

"The Lord will accomplish what concerns me." ~Psalm 138:8

comfort food

2010-11-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

red curry and coconut milk is such a fabulous combination

also, dressing up like fruit is fun

waitin' on a woman

2010-10-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

wherever there are women shopping, you will probably find men sitting outside the store waiting. the thing about texas is, the men are wearing boots, leather belts and cowboy hats, and they say "howdy" to the people who walk by. it makes me happy.

more stash-busting

2010-10-15T22:22:00.001-07:00

a tribute to American women

2010-10-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ago i decided to start cooking more, and went to the library to find some cookbooks and inspiration. first i was completely overwhelmed by the ridiculous amount of cookbooks there were to choose from. then i got distracted by this:

"A Thousand Years Over A Hot Stove: a history of American women told through food, recipes, and remembrances," by Laura Schenone not exactly a cookbook, but i thought it was very interesting. ever since i was old enough to read American Girl books, i've liked history. not the boring names, dates, battles and wars and presidents kind of history, but the clothes, food, lifestyles, culture kind. growing up, Oregon Trail was my favorite computer game. and after i read about Pocahontas, i wished with all my might that i had been born an Indian princess. i've always loved learning how people lived, what kind of clothes they wore, what kind of food they ate, what kinds of houses they lived in, etc. this book was definitely my kind of history. it begins in the ancient days of America, describing how the natives ate, what their culture was like, how closely their food tied in to their religion. the author moved on through history, describing gender roles and how they related to food, how food had an influence in changing culture, how African slaves changed southern cuisine. the author compared and contrasted the lives of Native American women, who were given autonomy in their freedom to leave their tribes to gather food, with those of Colonial women, who were confined to their kitchens with very little freedom whatsoever. she explains how hunger was a major driving force behind many immigrants coming to America, and how they kept their own cultures alive through food. the kinds of meals families enjoyed during times of plenty, and what they survived on during the poverty of the industrial age and the depression. what women's lives looked like when they were solely homemakers, and how they adapted during the world wars, when they had to go to work but also cook for their families at home. throughout all the information in the book are scattered old photographs, excerpts from diaries and recipes passed down from generation to generation. it might sound like a dull read to you, but i enjoyed it. just wanted to share.

"We can be ashamed of our wars and flaws, our capacity for evil as human beings. But cooking and caring for one another - this is our bright side. In cooking, we find our creativity, ingenuity. And I believe women want to embrace this connection because of our special history with food. If men want to join us in the kitchen, I think that's great. We need all the hospitality and caring we can get." ~Laura Schenone

ten-second rule!

2010-10-03T23:20:00.000-07:00

cooking spray makes things slippery.

don't worry, i only kept the ones that landed right-side up.

farewell to a faithful friend

2010-10-01T18:27:00.000-07:00

i'd like to have a moment of silence for my faithful stethoscope, whose auscultating days have come to an end. this was my first stethoscope, the one i received from my nursing instructors in school. it's helped me listen to countless crackles, wheezes, S1's, S2's, murmurs, bowel sounds, and bruits. it even helped get me out of a speeding ticket once. about a month ago i felt a scratch on my neck where my stethoscope was hanging. to my dismay, i discovered that it was cracked. my response? medical tape!

but to no avail. tape was just a temporary fix. it's time to face the truth.

so sad!

so i finally bit the bullet and bought a new one. which is...exactly the same as the old one.

i shall now re-tape my old broken-down friend and station it in my car, to enjoy it's retirement as "decoration." ;)

how to study the Bible

2010-09-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

i recently listened to this seminar on how to study the Bible, by Matt Chandler at the Village Church in Dallas. he teaches the same basic format i learned at the Austin Stone, but it was encouraging and motivating to hear a refresher.

a satisfying investment

2010-09-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

i recently made some muffins that called for cutting cold butter into the flour mixture. i've never been very good at this, mainly because it takes so long to do it with two knives that i would give up before the butter bits were small enough. these muffins didn't turn out so well either. i don't know if it's because of my bad butter-cutting technique or if it was just a dud recipe - anyway, i decided to buy a pastry blender. it was only $3.99 at Target, and i've already decided that it was money well spent. tonight i used it to make the most delightfully flaky buttermilk biscuits. here are some pictures.

pastry blender at work

well-blended dough

pre-baking

btw, that's not old nasty dr pepper in the background - it's olive oil

try not to drool

i like strawberry preserves. and butter.

my eyes are bigger than my stomach

2010-09-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been trying to do more reading and creative projects and less vegging out watching movies or tv shows. I've also been cooking more instead of buying frozen meals or fast food. It's much more satisfying to use my free time to work on my ever-growing reading list or make something new, and it's cheaper and healthier to make my food from scratch (usually). My only problem is, I get a little overly ambitious in my projects, which in the past has caused me to get overwhelmed and burnt-out and give up.

For example, I'm currently reading 4 books. One is my read-while-I'm-on-break-at-work book, one is my read-before-bed book, one is my read-while-eating-dinner book, and one is a book I started months and months ago that I can only read a little at a time of because it makes my brain hurt. I have this entire weekend off from work, and I've barely read at all. I spent today in Austin, visiting my sister and a friend, and shopping. And guess what I bought. 2 more books! AAAHHH!!! It's a disease! For fear of burning out to the point that I stop reading all together, I've decided to put my 2 new books away on my shelf, and I'm not allowed to start reading them until I finish one of the ones I'm reading now. We'll see how that goes.

As far as projects go, I have fabric draped over my ironing board in the living room, calling out to me to begin working on the messenger bag I want to make. I have been doing pretty well at "stash-busting" my collection of yarn. But on the way home from Austin, I almost stopped at Hobby Lobby to buy more yarn, when I had 2 unfinished knitting projects waiting for me at home! Thankfully, I stopped myself before it was too late. Once I see the rows and rows of beautiful yarn, it's all over for me.

I recently took a trip up to Arkansas to visit my brothers and new sister-in-law. After eating Janna's yummy homemade meals, I became more motivated to start trying out new recipes myself. The problem here is that I'm cooking for just one person. Most recipes make at least 4 servings, usually more - if they didn't make lots of servings, it wouldn't feel like they were worth making anyway. I've already found lots of recipes I want to try, but it takes me forever to finish eating just one of them, even if I freeze half. My freezer is quickly filling up, and I've had to stop cooking for awhile.

Well, all that to say, now that the craziness of summer is over, I can focus on other things. The list of things I want to do goes on and on, far beyond reading and cooking - like finally get involved in a church here in Temple, start exercising again, write letters to people more often, dust off my guitar and try to re-teach myself some cords....too much to do, too little time. And before I know it it'll be time for me to start looking for another travel assignment. *sigh*

I'm going to go read a book now.

random picture, just for fun

miracles

2010-09-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

"They [metaphorical Christian doctrines] mean that in addition to the physical or psycho-physical universe known to the sciences, there exists an uncreated and unconditioned reality which causes the universe to be; that this reality has a positive structure or constitution which is usefully, though doubtless not completely, described in the doctrine of the Trinity; and that this reality, at a definite point in time, entered the universe we know by becoming one of its own creatures and there produced effects on the historical level which the normal workings of the natural universe do not produce; and that this has brought about a change in our relations to the unconditioned reality."

I love C.S. Lewis, but sometimes he makes my head hurt a little.

sigh of relief

2010-09-02T20:05:00.000-07:00

as i try to make my way in this grown-up world of being a responsible adult, i keep discovering that various things i believed as a child were actually lies. for instance, that my acne would clear up after adolescence. also, that after i finished school for good, summertime would just be like any other time of the year. summer was always a crazy time of campouts, vacations, swim team, random activities, and disrupted schedules when i was growing up. and although i loved it, it was always kind of nice to go back to school in the fall, and back to a normal routine. i guess i assumed that it would change after i finished college and entered the real world. i was sad that i wouldn't have the long breaks in the summers anymore, but also looked forward to having a somewhat normal schedule year-round. boy was i wrong. in actuality, adults get to deal with all the craziness of summer (trips, vacations, events, etc) AND continue going to work each week, paying bills, juggling life, etc. which is why i've been dead to the blogging world the past couple of months. i don't remember ever having such a full summer in my life. and although it was great, i'm welcoming the first cool breeze of fall with a sigh of relief.

summer plans

2010-07-01T21:59:00.000-07:00

so Temple isn't such an exciting place to live. i like my job so far though, and it's nice to be making money again, after 3 months of racking up medical bills. the hospital has been crazy busy, and i've been able to pick up some overtime. also, Temple is a convenient place to be for the summer, as it's sort of in-between the 3 cities my various family members live in: Houston, Dallas, and Austin. i won't have to buy a plane ticket to go to my little brother's wedding in 3 weeks (aaahh! 3 weeks! really??? trying not to hyperventilate...) and on my days off i can visit friends and family.

while i'm not working as much overtime as i can stomach or going on road trips around Texas, i have a few other things to do this summer. first, write a novel. 2 years ago i joined a writing group with some friends that takes the month of July to write a 50,000 word novel. crazy, but fun. it's based on this book:

there is actually an official writing group started by the author of the book, but they write their novels in November, while the group i'm in writes in July.

another summer goal: make a dent in my ever-growing stash of yarn. if i don't get a handle on it soon, it's going to come to life as a gigantic yarn monster and strangle me in my sleep.

any suggestions? here's the result of my first attempt at my summer stash-bust:

and here's my current project:

i found this gem of a book at the library yesterday. once i finish the above project, i'm going to start on one of these one-skein wonders.

thankful for my feet

2010-06-11T22:09:00.000-07:00

after 2 air splints, 3 casts, 1 walking boot, 1 ankle brace, multiple x-rays, doctor's appointments, physical therapy and medical bills...my ankles are now back to normal. and my 3 months of unemployment are finally coming to an end! next stop: Temple, TX for travel assignment #3.

the color of coffee

2010-06-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

what to do when you have 2 white sundresses? make one a different color!

i've always wanted to try tea staining, so i decided to experiment with a hand-me-down dress my cousin gave me. after staining it twice with tea it was a pretty, light-cream-with-a-hint-of-reddish-brown color. i forgot to take pictures of the tea staining process, but this is what i did:

1. wash and dry the dress as normal
2. boil enough water to submerge dress, add teabags, about 1 per cup of water
3. wet the dress with hot water, wring out
4. after steeping the tea for about 5 minutes, add the dampened dress. i left the teabags in the water when i soaked the dress, just to experiment. it ended up making one darker spot on the fabric, so i recommend taking the bags out before soaking the dress.
5. check the color every 5-10 minutes. i think i let it soak about 30 minutes total.
6. after soaking, rinse out dress with warm water and mild soap
7. hang dress to dry
8. soak in a fresh pot of tea if desired. the second time i took the teabags out of the water first.
9. after drying the dress again, soak in mixture of water and vinegar. i didn't measure it, but i just put enough water into a container to submerge the dress, then added a couple generous splashes of vinegar.
10. hang dress to dry
11. wash and dry as normal

after tea-staining the dress, i thought i'd experiment with coffee next. i set the sash aside so i'd be able to compare colors afterward. i did the same process as before, just with really strong coffee this time. and i remembered to take pictures:

big pot of coffee

soaking the dress

checking the color

rinsing with soapy water

drying on the porch

after the vinegar soak, final wash and dry. this shows the dress and the lighter-colored sash.

the ruffles around the hem look a little darker than the rest because of the double layers.

all done!

flora and fauna around the house

2010-06-04T15:49:00.000-07:00

my sister got hitched!

2010-05-23T12:11:00.000-07:00

once upon a time, there was this beautiful girl

and a boy with an awesome mustache.

they fell in love,

and decided to get married.

so they rounded up their friends and family,

got all dolled up,

and had a party.

there were a few tears,

lots of smiles,

and smooching, of course!

some grandmas were there

and some pretty adorable babies.

everyone ate yummy food

and danced the night away.

now they're busy living happily ever after.

the end.

homemade laundry soap

2010-05-06T22:40:00.000-07:00

i keep losing my recipe for laundry soap, so i'm going to put it in my blog. a lady i met on a women's retreat last year told me all about making her own laundry detergent. she has 3 little boys and a husband to wash clothes for, which can get pretty expensive. i started making it, and then got my mom into making her own too. the ingredients are so cheap, i think it ends up costing just a few cents per load of laundry. there are several recipes out there, but i like this one.

ingredients:

* 1 bar of ivory soap, or 1/2 bar of zote

* 1/2 cup arm & hammer washing soda (not to be confused with arm & hammer laundry detergent or baking soda - the washing soda comes in a yellow box)

* 1/2 cup borax

* a few drops of essential oils (optional)

i think i found the washing soda and borax in the laundry detergent isle of the grocery store. to be extra thrifty, you can buy it in bulk at sam's club or costco.

1. grate the bar of soap and place it in a large pot (or use a small pot and then transfer everything to a large bucket for step 5)

2. add about 6 cups of water to the pot and heat, stirring, on the stove until the soap melts/dissolves

3. add the washing soda and borax, stir until dissolved

4. remove from heat

5. add about 26 cups (1 gallon + 10 cups) of hot water to the mixture, stir. the total volume will end up being about 2 gallons.

6. add a few drops of essential oils if you want a specific scent. this is optional - it just smells nice and clean without any oils.

7. let the mixture sit for at least 8 hours to gel. it will look and feel kind of gross and snotty after it gels, but that's normal. you might need to get your hands in it and squish up any big clumps to be able to transfer it to bottles.

8. transfer the detergent to empty bottles (leftover store-bought detergent bottles work great!)

9. use 1/2 cup detergent per load of laundry. shake the bottle before pouring it out, as the soap separates a little when it's just sitting there. the soap will not make suds when you run a load, but that's ok - it washes laundry just as well as the store-bought stuff.

hooray for saving money! also, it's good for the environment, so you can be politically correct. :-P

the tragedy of an amateur snowboarder, part 3

2010-04-24T18:11:00.000-07:00

After getting me down the mountain, Hans made me walk up some stairs into the first aid trailer to fill out some forms. He asked me if I was ok to drive myself home, and of course I said yes - I'm irrational when I'm in pain. I realize now I should have called someone to come get me, but I really didn't want to bother anyone. So, after I limped back down the stairs out of the trailer, he wheeled me across the parking lot in a wheelchair to my car. At this point both feet were very swollen and red. But somehow, I managed to drive. Thankfully it hadn't snowed any that day and the road down the mountain was clear. Before heading home I stopped at the rental place to return my snowboard. I limped slowly inside, board in one hand, boots in the other. The rental guy asked me what was wrong and I told him I hurt my feet. He just laughed at me.

Finally I made it home, without killing anyone or wrecking my car. At this point I hated myself for having requested a 3rd floor apartment. But I was determined that everything would be ok if I could just get home and elevate and ice my feet, so I dragged myself up the stairs and got into bed with 2 ziplocks full of ice and lots of pillows. Then I think I started coming out of survival mode and was able to start thinking rationally. My feet were huge and red, and hurt so bad that I was shaking all over. My thoughts went something like this: "I should see a doctor. But I don't have a doctor in Reno. I probably need x-rays. Where should I go? I don't even know who takes my insurance. And it's almost 5:00. I don't want to go to the ER. What if my ankles are broken? I'm going to lose my job. I don't know what to do. I know - I'll call Mom! She'll know what to do." So I called Mom. She helped me figure out which urgent care to go to, and demanded that I give her the phone number of my Bible study leader, so she could call and get someone to come help me. Because I still wasn't going to ask for help. I'm used to helping other people, not asking anyone to help me. God had some lessons to teach me about that. I gave Mom the number and then hobbled back down the stairs, got back in my car, and drove to the urgent care. After the urgent care people watched me painfully limp through the hall, they made me step up onto a scale to get my weight. Such logic. I was in too much pain to care, but afterward that made me kind of mad. How much I weigh will make absolutely no difference in how they treat my ankles! The doctor wanted me to get x-rays, but they didn't have an x-ray machine at that location. They said I should have gone to the urgent care clinic at the bottom of Mt. Rose, because they had an x-ray machine. This would have been an excellent piece of information for Hans to have shared with me. As it was, I would have to go to the hospital down town to get x-rays.

While I was rushing to the urgent care clinic before it closed, Mom was trying to call my Bible study leader, Marshall, who is also the worship leader at the church I was going to in Reno. The phone number I gave her was for his home phone, but nobody answered, because Thursday night is band practice. So she decided to call the lead pastor, Brent Brooks. Brent and his wife had been in a Bible study with my parents in Houston 30 years ago, when Joe Wall was the pastor of Spring Branch Community Church. The number Mom had for Brent was just the church phone number, and nobody answered. So she called Scot Wall, the pastor of Magnolia Bible Church in Texas, and asked for his dad's (Joe Wall's) phone number. She called Joe, who couldn't hear her because his hearing aids weren't working or something, so she ended up talking to his wife Linda, who translated for him. They were able to give her some numbers for Brent, and she got ahold of him, who got ahold of Marshall, who called my friend Crystal.

After this comedy of errors, Crystal, the wife of the youth pastor and also a nurse, came and picked me up and drove me downtown to the hospital. While we were in the car she said, "By the way, Ruth, you're staying at our house tonight." I ended up staying with her and her husband, Robbie, for a week. When I found out my left ankle was broken in 2 places and my right ankle was sprained, the travel company had to cancel my travel contract and kicked me out of my apartment. Crystal and Robbie packed up everything in my apartment for me, drove me to and from my doctor's appointments, and let my mom and brother Jonathan stay at their house for a night after they flew in. I was going to drive my car back to Texas, but my parents were worried that it would be bad for my ankle, which swelled up and turned dark purple every time I stood up. So Mom and Jonathan flew to Reno to drive my car back to Texas, and I flew home a few days later.

the tragedy of an amateur snowboarder, part 2

2010-04-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

After getting settled in at my new apartment in Reno and getting the hang of things at work, I finally got around to going snowboarding. At first I had planned on buying a board to use again next year, but then decided to rent one more time to make sure I really wanted to spend the money on one. Good decision. On March 11, I bundled up, packed my gear, and drove the short distance to Mount Rose. I'd found a ski shop at the bottom of the mountain to rent a board from, since it was cheaper than renting from the resort. Also, Thursdays being "Ladies Day" at Mt. Rose, I got a discount on my lift ticket. (I'm trying to look on the bright side here - at least I didn't spend much money to break my body. Beforehand anyway.)

Most of the day was pretty uneventful. I went alone, so just listened to music on my ipod and mostly stuck to the green slopes. I did ok, but for some reason had a really hard time getting off the lift. Especially when the ski instructors asked me to ride up with the "Rosebuds" (very small children on skis). It does not do great things for your self-esteem to ride up a ski lift sitting in-between a 5 year old and a 6 year old, watch them zoom off gracefully upon reaching the top, and promptly fall flat on your face. Oh well, it probably made those kids' day. It really was a perfect day to go - sunny, clear, not too cold or windy, and the snow was great. By the end of the day I was getting bored and wanted to do a couple of longer runs before going home. So I hopped on the lift to the top of the mountain, to the blue slopes. What I didn't realize was that in addition to being a little bored, I was also very tired. And not paying much attention to what I was doing. Anyway, shortly after I started the run I was shifting from the heel edge to the toe edge of the board and lost my balance. As Jonathan later said, I apparently tend to hurt myself in the most unimpressive ways. I mean, when people ask me how I hurt my leg I say "snowboarding," and they act all impressed, like I was doing a flip off a half-pipe or something. When really, I basically just fell over while going very slowly in a straight line. Lame. All of a sudden I found myself on my face (again), with the board bending my feet up at a very sharp angle towards my shins, and excruciating pain shooting up my feet throughout my entire body. That's when I started screaming. When I'm hurt, I scream. I don't cry or cuss, I just scream. I think it freaks people out. This nice lady on skis came over after I stopped screaming and tried to help. Our conversation went something like this:

Nice Lady: "Are you ok??"

Me: "Um, I don't know yet." (breathing heavily and starting to shake)

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Oh, just give me a minute. I need to get my board off." (For some reason, I thought that if I got the board off, my feet would be ok. I got it off, and they felt worse).

"Do you think you can get back down the mountain, or should I get one of the first aid guys?"

"Just a minute. I think I can do it. I just need to rest first." (meanwhile both feet were swelling up at an astonishing rate)

"Well, I'll stay with you til you're ready and then help you get down the easiest way, ok?"

After a few minutes of sitting there trying to convince myself that I was fine and it was just a sprain, I strapped the board back on and stood up. And immediately fell over. And maybe screamed a little bit more.

"I (pant, pant) don't think I can do it."

Nice Lady then flagged down one of the first aid guys, who in my opinion had very little medical knowledge. His name was Hans, or Lars, or something, and he had a thick German accent.

Hans: "What happened?"

Me: "I hurt my ankles."

"Which one?"

"Um, I think both of them."

"So, the right ankle?"

"No, both ankles."

He asked me a few more questions, then started talking into his walkie-talkie. "I have a 24-year old female with a sprained right ankle at the top of the Northwest Magnum. I need a sled."

I really did not want to ride the sled down the mountain, but didn't exactly have a choice at this point. Another first aid guy drove up in a snowmobile carting a sled and the 2 of them got me into it and mummy-wrapped me in velcro straps. First Aid Guy # 2 started pulling me behind him on his skis, while Hans took my board down on the snowmobile, and everyone else on the mountain stared. So in addition to being in terrible pain, I was claustrophobic and self-conscious, and also a little bit in shock I think. After I got over the fact that everyone was staring at me, all I could really think was, "Get down mountain, get home, get in bed, prop up feet, then everything will be ok."

to be continued...

the tragedy of an amateur snowboarder, part 1

2010-04-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been over a month since the bone-shattering event that interrupted my tidy little life plans, and I've been told that it's time to tell the tale. A certain friend has said on multiple occasions that anything is worth a good blog story. We shall see. To begin, a little background information:

When I started travel nursing back in October, the first job I got was in Colorado. I was a little nervous about spending the winter in the midst of so much snow and ice, but was excited to learn how to snowboard. During my childhood in Texas, the closest thing to snow sports I ever experienced was to "sled" down Grandma's wheelchair ramp after a night of freezing rain. My family stopped taking ski trips to Colorado when I was 2, and I always wished that I had learned how to ski. We did, however, spend almost every summer at some lake or another tubing and water skiing, so I really wasn't that deprived. When I was 16 I switched from water skiing to wakeboarding and never went back. I never was spectacular on a wakeboard, but I could do it well enough to have a good time. Since I enjoyed it so much more than water skiing, I figured I'd feel the same way about snowboarding and snow skiing. So, when I headed out to Eldora ski resort in Colorado last December, I decided to take the snowboarding class. I learned how to get down the green slopes without killing myself, and over the next 2 months went out every week or so. The first time I tried a blue slope, I sprained my wrist. That was a big red flag I should have paid more attention to. But no, I just took some ibuprofen, slapped on a wrist splint and kept trying. By the end of my Colorado assignment I could spend a day on the slopes, have a good time, and walk away without being covered in bruises. Satisfied with my first traveling experience, I got ready for my next assignment in Reno, Nevada.

to be continued...

back in magnolia...

2010-03-24T15:00:00.000-07:00

snowboarding is lots of fun. i'm just not very good at it. i sprained one ankle and fractured the other a couple of weeks ago. so now i am jobless, homeless, and somewhat legless. the good news is, my family has an overabundance of wheelchairs. and a twisted sense of humor.

pictures at Mount Rose

2010-03-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

these are a few pictures i took at Mount Rose the other day, during my last snowboarding adventure of the season.

and this is why i won't be snowboarding again for awhile

three-grain apple cinnamon granola

2010-03-08T21:56:00.000-08:00

after my friend Katrina posted a recipe for chocolate granola on her blog awhile back, i wanted to try making cereal. i found this recipe in my cookbook. it's yummy, so i thought i'd share. and i like taking pictures of food.

preheat the oven to 300. i cut way down on the baking times, because the first time i made this recipe the cereal tasted burnt.

combine on a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes:

2 cups oats

1 cup barley flakes

1 cup rye flakes

add 2 cups chopped walnuts,

1/2 cup wheat germ,

and 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, and bake for another 5 minutes

add 1/2 cup dry milk powder (optional) and 1 tablespoon cinnamon

heat, stirring, until blended:

1/2 to 2/3 cup honey

1/2 cup oil

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

add the oil mixture to the dry mixture and stir until coated. spread on the baking sheet and bake, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes.

stir in 1 cup chopped dry apples, and 1/2 cup raisins

let cool, then store in a tightly sealed container for up to 5 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 month

i wish my car was 4-wheel drive

2010-02-23T13:47:00.000-08:00

Well, everyone back home seems to be posting on blog and facebook all about the miraculous Texas snowfall, so I might as well talk about snow too. :) The past week or so, it's been sunny and warm here in Reno. It's felt like spring, and I was loving it! I got to go on long walks outside instead of working out in the gym (which I sort of detest, but do anyway cause I feel good when I'm in shape). Saturday morning I went on one of these delightful walks. Then by Saturday evening it was getting chilly and thick clouds were descending, covering the nearby mountains. I went to a service at a church down the road from me, and by the time I left to go home there was about an inch of snow on the ground. I didn't think much of it, having just spent 3 months in Colorado. But I didn't realize that it would just continue to snow harder and harder throughout the night. It was still snowing hard when I got up at 5 the next morning to get ready for work. Despite the new tires I got on my car in Colorado, it still tends to slip and slide a little, and I really hate driving in snow and ice. I left about 20 minutes early, waded through at least 6 inches of the stuff to get to my car, and crept along at about 20 or 30 mph on the highway to get to work. People around here might be more used to driving in the stuff than Texans, but I passed quite a few cars stranded in the ditches. I finally made it to work, where nobody had thought to plow the parking lot, and somehow managed to park my car. I waded in to the hospital, thanking God I'd survived and hoping that everyone scheduled to work that day would make it. I guess they did, cause it was a pretty decent day. Every time I looked out the window I saw more fat flakes coming down, and tried not to think about when I'd have to dig my car out of the parking lot in the dark after work. By that time, thought, the parking lot had been plowed, and the roads weren't too terrible. I did pass 2 accidents on the highway, and even more cars stuck in the ditch. Sometimes I wish I could have experienced snow when I was a kid, back before it would start giving me heart failure. :) Needless to say, I'm looking forward to spring.

pictures

2010-02-14T20:42:00.000-08:00

here are a few of the snapshots i took on my drive from Colorado to Nevada. they're not exactly in chronological order.

this was the view from a rest stop in Utah

i think this was the most trees i saw in one place the entire time. most of the landscape was just dirt and rocks.

this was outside of Salt Lake City. it's hard to see the mountain because of the fog, but it was beautiful. the ugly smokestack was a stark contrast.

cool rock formations in Wyoming - or maybe in Colorado, right before Wyoming.

my wonderful driving buddy. this is from the balcony of my new apartment in Reno.

and a couple of pictures from our costume party, about a week before my road trip. there are some more pictures on Hannah's blog.

Learning How to Pray

2010-02-11T11:00:00.001-08:00

I have lots of pictures to post, from the costume party and my drive from Colorado to Nevada. However, I'm not on my own computer at the moment, so for now I'm just going to share something from my Bible reading/journaling today. It's kind of long, and scattered and random, but there are about 5 more pages of scattered, unwritten thoughts banging around in my head. Just wanted to share some of the ones I actually wrote down.

"When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give use each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation'...So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Luke 11:2-9

Jesus' disciples had asked Him how to pray, and that was his response. Here are some observations I made on it. Components, or guidelines, of prayer include:
-Acknowledging the holiness of God
-Hoping for His kingdom to be established
-Asking for what you need right now - daily bread, not weekly bread, or monthly, or yearly
-Asking for forgiveness - realizing your sinfulness and need for forgiveness
-Forgiving those who are indebted to you, or have wronged you
-Requesting help to avoid temptation, in order to prevent future sin
-Be persistent - in the ask, seek, and knock verse, my Bible had notes expanding on that, to say "keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking." He didn't say how long to keep asking - He just says (or implies) to not stop. "Somehow, I think he [Aslan] likes to be asked" (one of the Narnia books)
-A reminder that our heavenly Father loves to give good things to His children (vs 11-13)

How much my prayers would change if I followed these guidelines every time! I praise God through song at church, but seldom do I verbalize His holiness in my prayers. And I don't often think about His kingdom, or how I am to help establish it. Often my prayers mostly consist of requests, I'm sorry to say. The concept of asking only for what I need right now, today, is hard to grasp sometimes. I love security too much. I want to know that I'm taken care of today, and tomorrow, and next week, and next year. I think that while it's wise to think about and plan for the future, I often rely on my own plans more than I rely on God to take care of me from one day to the next. Asking Him only for what I need today would help me to focus on the moment, to live for whatever is happening right now, instead of always thinking about the future. I don't even know for certain if God is going to give me a tomorrow - all I know is that He's given me a today. Asking for forgiveness - I do include that one, but not on a regular basis. Although I know I am forgiven without even asking, sometimes if I don't adress my sins specifically before God, I end up dwelling on them and becoming overwhelmed with feelings of guilt, which then get in-between me and God. Forgiving everyone - now there's a tough one. "Love keeps no account of wrongs" (1 Cor. 13) - but I do, all the time. If I were to forgive people daily - either tell them or tell God, or both - I think I would end up with a much greater capacity to love. Anticipating future temptation, and realizing that I will need the Lord's help to avoid it, would definitely help. So many times I look at other people who have "sinned so greatly," and I think "what an idiot. I would never do something like that. I'm above such things." I forget that we are all sinners, and I am just as capable of doing hideous things as anybody else (not to mention my pride in thinking I'm better than anyone else). God promises not to let me encounter any temptation I am not equipped to deal with (1 Cor. 10:13), but if I don't even acknowledge that I'm capable of succumbing to temptation, then I'm just setting myself up for failure. Persistence is definitely something I struggle with. When I pray for someone and don't see any evidence of change, after awhile I often give up and stop praying altogether. I say, "what's the point? They're never going to change. They've resisted God for so long - what can He do about it?" How quickly I forget my God's power! He is the God who softened Pharaoh's heart, the God who holds this whole crazy world together, the God who used a brutul killer to write most of the New Testament and spread the gospel throughout Europe! I also forget His love. I forget that He is my Daddy, and he loves to give good things to His kids even more than my earthly Dad loves to take care of me. So...lots of thoughts about prayer. I'm going to try to change the way I pray. It'll take some time and persistence I think. We'll see how it goes.

Bravo to you if you actually read through this whole jumbled mess. :)

on the road again

2010-02-03T15:19:00.000-08:00

"The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can.

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say."

~Bilbo Baggins

quick update

2010-01-27T10:42:00.000-08:00

so i guess i'm not very good at the blogging thing. sorry. i'll try to be better.

just a quick update/recap on my life, so i can move on and my millions of readers (ok, maybe 2 or 3 readers) won't be lost:

i just spent 3 months on my first travel nursing assignment in Lafayette, Colorado. that's in the suburbs in-between Denver and Boulder. it was a good first assignment, not too challenging or overwhelming. i was doing the same type of nursing i got trained for in Austin - telemetry/cardiac. it was my first time working night shift, and that was tough. i was tired almost all of the time, since i still tried to do stuff during the day on my days off. but half the time i just slept on my days off, so i didn't get to do everything i wanted to while i was in Colorado. i did get to learn how to snowboard though, which was hard but awesome. i discovered muscles i never knew i had, fell on my face a million times, and sprained my wrist, but had a great time. oh, and my family came up for Christmas, which was wonderful.

anyway, now the Colorado job is over and i have 2 weeks off, which i'm spending in Texas visiting family and friends. then on February 6 i'm going to start another 3-month job in Reno, Nevada. doing the same type of nursing, but this time day shift - hooray! :) Reno looks like a fun place, despite all the drinking and gambling. when i was at the doctor for a check-up the other day, i mentioned i was going to Reno and he just starting laughing and said "haha! sin city number 2!" that's not why i'm going there - i promise.

well, i'll try to be more faithful about updating my blog over the next few months. oh, and Hannah and i are having a costume party this weekend. i'll be sure to post pictures. :)

i have a dragon

2010-01-11T01:02:00.000-08:00

after crocheting for 16 years, i finally decided to try out amigurumi. i think it turned out pretty well for a first attempt. :)

my muscles won't work

2009-12-06T12:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I decided to be adventurous. I drove out to Eldora, about an hour from my apartment, and took an all-day snowboarding lesson. Maybe not the wisest move, considering I haven't worked out in about 2 months. I fell about a million times, and I have bruises all over me and can hardly move today. But it was worth it. By the end of the day, I could actually get myself off of the ski lift without eating snow, and had one successful run down the hill without falling once. I came back home afterward, utterly exhausted, and planned on getting into my pajamas and going to bed early. But then a sweet lady I met at church called and invited me to go with her and her family to see Christmas lights at the botanical garden in Denver, so I did. I probably shouldn't have, because I fell asleep as soon as I got into their car. I was too tired to be embarrassed about it. But we had fun, and they didn't laugh at me, at least not to my face. :) Church this morning was wonderful. I've been going to Calvary Bible, which is in Boulder. Despite it having snowed all night and this morning, I made it to both Sunday school and the service. It's so much easier to drive in snow when you have decent tires on your car. I got them replaced a couple of weeks ago. All in all, it's been a great weekend. And now I think I need a nap.

foxes and glittens

2009-11-17T23:28:00.000-08:00

i went to the Denver Art Museum today with one of my coworkers. of course i left my camera at home. grrr! but i really liked a lot of the exhibits. i don't think i've been to an art museum since highschool. i'm not very good at seeing beyond the exterior though, into what the pieces mean and such. i kind of wish i'd taken art appreciation in school. this walk-through exhibit was pretty cool. you could hardly see the wires suspending the foxes in the air.

later i went grocery shopping, so i wouldn't have to eat instant oatmeal again if i was hungry in the middle of the night. and then i came home and relaxed. and finished knitting my first pair of glittens! it was the hardest thing i've knit so far. i'm rather proud. oh, the cleverness of me. i guess this is my form of art. :-P

snow, tea, and insomnia

2009-11-16T22:21:00.000-08:00

I was going to wait and update my blog when I had some more pictures to share. But I'm kind of lazy when it comes to capturing my life on film - or shall I say, memory card. I always seem to forget my camera when I go out, and then I see something I want to take a picture of and can't. Today I was good, and remembered to bring my camera with me. Alas, when I went to take a picture, I found the battery was dead.

But I'm going to update this anyway, because I can't sleep. In the past 30 hours I've slept about 3 of them. I just now lay in bed for 50 minutes, utterly exhausted and wide awake. And my feet were cold. And I was hungry. I'm always hungry these days. Maybe eating all the time is my body's compensation for sleep deprivation. Unfortunately, I'm running low on groceries. I was going to go grocery shopping in the morning, when I'd had enough sleep to think straight. So here I am with icy toes and an empty stomach. They roll up the sidewalks around here by 8 or 9, and I'm really too tired to drive, so going out to get food is out of the question. Guess I'll have to settle for instant oatmeal. Better than nothing.

I got up early this afternoon to go out to lunch with some ladies from work. We went toBoulder Dushanbe Teahouse. It was scrumptious. That's when I wanted to take pictures. Apparently the teahouse was a gift to Boulder from Tajikistan. It's absolutely beautiful, with mosaics on the ceiling and carved wooden pillars and beautiful statues and a fish pond in the middle. Oh, and in the corners, they had short tables where you could take off your shoes and sit cross-legged on cushions while drinking your tea. We sat at a regular table though. We all got different kinds of tea, and they brought it out in individual teapots, and gave us a little hourglass timer so we'd know how long to steep our tea leaves for. One of them got a blossoming tea, which I'd never heard of, but was very entertaining. Before putting it in hot water, it looks like a dried blob of mushroom or something. Then you add hot water, and it expands to look like a blossoming flower. We sat and watched it for at least 5 minutes. Here's a picture of one I found on the internet.

I guess I don't have much to write. Work is going well, and I think I'm getting the hang of computer charting. It's snowed a couple of times, but right now the roads are clear, thankfully. I desperately need snow tires. Driving home Sunday morning was scary. I'll hopefully get my tires changed tomorrow or Wednesday. I also need to get over my hatred of shopping long enough to buy some decent winter clothes. I've been layering a lot.

one week down, twelve to go

2009-10-31T13:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been in colorado for a week now. It feels like longer. My wonderful 19-yr-old cousin Noah drove up with me from Texas, and he definitely made the drive easier. On Wednesday we just drove from Magnolia to Dallas, so I could see my grandmother before heading to CO. Thursday we drove to Salina, Kansas, which was a long boring drive. Both Wednesday and Thursday it rained and was cloudy most of the way. We ate a lot of junk food, and played with the GPS. Finally, on Friday things got more interesting. The sun came out, and the drive was beautiful. Right before crossing over the border into Colorado, Noah looked out the window and saw white stuff on the ground. Trying to be cool and nonchalant, he casually mentioned it.

"Um, Ruth, what's that?" (pointing out the window)

Me: "Oh, it looks like snow!"

Then he lost it, started giggling hysterically and bouncing up and down in his seat.

The snow got thicker and thicker as we drove west, and we stopped at the "welcome to Colorado" rest stop to have a snowball fight and make snowmen and a snow angel. Noah was excitedly rolling the balls for the snowman, when a man came walking out of the nearby building and started talking to us.

"Is this your first snowman of the season?" he asked

Noah: "No, it's my first snowman EVER!"

"Oh, well then, I gotta get a picture of this." and he pulled out his camera phone, snapped a picture, and walked off smiling. I think we made his day. Here's our snowman. We named him Duncan.

And of course Noah had to make some Calvin snowmen (if you don't know what that means, then you must read Calvin and Hobbes). This amused several other passers-by.

Friday afternoon we arrived at my apartment. It's the nicest apartment I've ever had, in one of those "luxury" complexes I've always been a little afraid of. You know, the kind of complex that's big enough to be a small village, and every building looks the same. I think some of Austin rubbed off on me, as far as gentrification goes. But it's a very nice apartment, and I do like living there. And it's paid for by my travel company, and they provided the furniture, which is actually pretty nice. I can't see the mountains from my window, but I do get the sunrises.

After moving my stuff in we did a little exploring in the area, bought a bunch of stuff at Walmart that I couldn't bring with me (you can only fit so much stuff into your car), and rested. I'd been sick for about a week and a half, and that on top of driving 1100 miles, and getting used to the altitude made me pretty exhausted. Saturday Noah flew home, and I spent the rest of the weekend resting and exploring some more, and trying out a couple different churches in the area.

Monday through Wednesday I had long, overwhelming computer classes at the hospital. The computer system is probably going to be the most challenging part of this job. At my job in Austin, we were still doing mostly paper charting, so the computer system is going to take a lot of getting used to, though I don't have much time to get used to it. I only get 2 shadow shifts on the floor, then I'll be on my own. But everyone seems pretty nice so far, so hopefully they'll help me. Last night was my first shadow shift, and my first night shift ever. It was kind of quiet and laid back, and after doing some charting I don't feel quite as intimidated by the computers. I didn't realize it, but I'd missed working. The 3-week break in-between jobs was nice, but once I was back on the floor working with patients, it occurred to me that I had missed it. Missed the patients. That's a good sign, right? Well, I made it through my first night shift without falling asleep, though I came close a couple of times. I hadn't had much of an appetite and hardly ate anything the whole shift, so I was starving when I got off work. So I ate my roast beef sandwich on the way home at 7:40 am, went to bed at 8:30, and woke up 4 hours later feeling awake but slightly jet-lagged. I think my body is going to be very confused for awhile.

Well, that's about it so far. Oh - except we had a massive snow storm Tuesday through Thursday, and I thought I was going to die trying to drive in it. But I didn't. I just drove really really slow, and probably ticked off all the experienced Colorado drivers in their 4-wheel drive trucks and SUV's. Hopefully they saw my Texas license plate and had mercy.

under way and off to see the world

2009-10-21T06:57:00.000-07:00

I'm about to drive to Colorado to work as a travel nurse for the next 3 months. Most people know I've been thinking about it for awhile, so I won't write a bunch of details about it right now. I got a phone interview for the job last Tuesday, and they offered it to me a couple hours later. Then I had to drive from Austin to Magnolia to get some labwork done, do a crazy amount of paperwork, and see my little brothers while they were home for fall break. Then I drove back to Austin Monday to quit my job, pack the rest of my things, and spend 2 days saying goodbye to my brother, sister, friends, and coworkers. After they all gave me hugs, said nice things, and tore my heart out, I drove back to Magnolia last night. Now I'm at my parents' house, and have a few hours to cram all my belongings into the back of my car. If I thought about it enough, I could probably come up with something poetic to say about what lies before me. But all that comes to mind right now is this:

When the course is laid and the anchor's weighed

A sailor's blood begins racing

With our hearts unbound and our flag unfurled

We're under way and off to see the world

Under way and off to see the world

Hey ho, we'll go

Anywhere the wind is blowing

Hoist the sails and sing

Sailing for adventure on the big blue wet thing!

i love my patients

2009-09-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

in the midst of all the busyness and stress of my job, there's always room for a little humor...

yesterday, i was called into a room to help a doctor out with his assessment on one of my patients. basically, the patient had a problem, and the doctor wanted me to deal with it so he could get on with his day. no problem, that's what i'm there for. so, i went in and was taking care of my patient, an adorably feisty little old lady who talks everybody's ear off. the doctor was just about to leave when his cell phone rang. his ring tone was a pretty, yet somewhat mournful rendition of Amazing Grace on the bagpipes. he silenced it, then turned to the patient to say goodbye.

"What was THAT?" she demanded.

"What do you mean, what was that?" the doctor said with a smile. "That was bagpipes."

"Well, I'm not dead YET, honey."

a bundle of joy

2009-08-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the last "Concert in the Park" of the summer, put on by the Austin Symphony. I've gone several times over the summer, and sat out on the hill on blankets with friends while listening to strings, woodwind ensembles, brass quartets, and tonight the big band. We usually talk a little, then read books, journal, or just sit and listen while the symphony plays. This is something I wrote in my journal tonight. Just thought I'd share.

I'm at the last symphony concert of the summer, sitting on a a blanket on the hill as the sun sets and the big band plays. There's a family nearby with 3 adorable little boys. The mom is asian and the dad is anglo, so of course their kids are beautiful. The youngest one caught my eye when I first got here. He was toddling around in circles, stumbling down the hill, and just grinning from ear to ear. He must have just recently learned to walk, because he was so thoroughly delighted with his amazing ability. He seemed to be having the time of his life, just from toddling around. He grinned up at anyone who made eye contact, and of course those big dark eyes and rosy cheeks brought smiles to everyone's faces. It struck me how much joy this kid has. If he could talk yet, I can imagine him saying something like, "Look at this - I'm walking! Is there anything more wonderful?" He would run around in circles, then get going down the hill, building up speed until he tripped and fell flat on his face. But no worries - he just smiled, picked himself back up, and went at it again. He wasn't worried about anything at all. Once or twice he tripped and hurt himself, but after crying for about 10 seconds and running back to his mom for a quick hug, everything was ok again, and he forgot all about it.

How often do I find such joy in such small things? I walk around every day, and think nothing of it. I wish I could rediscover the world, the way a baby does. I think I might be able to, to some small extent, if I try. It really would be amazing I think. To take nothing for granted, to be completely enraptured by the wonder of every little thing that is good. To be able to thoroughly enjoy something, without a thousand other things going through my mind clamoring for attention, without doubts and fears and uncertainties gnawing through the pit of my stomach, without thinking about and planning out the next day or hour or moment. And when something goes wrong, to just run back to the One who has everything under control, let Him fix it, and then get back to living with all my heart. I think that might be part of what God meant when He wanted us to become like children.

"Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." ~Matthew 18:3-4

i need a revelation

2009-08-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

My life has led me down the road that's so uncertain

And now I am left alone and I am broken,

Trying to find my way,

Trying to find the faith that's gone

This time I know that You are holding all the answers

I'm tired of losing hope and taking chances

On roads that never seem

To be the ones that bring me home

Give me a revelation,

Show me what to do

Cause I've been trying to find my way,

I haven't got a clue

Tell me should I stay here,

Or do I need to move

Give me a revelation

I've got nothing without You

My life has led me down this path that's ever winding

Through every twist and turn I'm always finding

That I am lost again

Tell me when this road will ever end

Give me a revelation,

Show me what to do

Cause I've been trying to find my way,

I haven't got a clue

Tell me should I stay here,

Or do I need to move

Give me a revelation

I've got nothing without You

I don't know where I can turn

Tell me when will I learn

Won't You show me where I need to go

Let me follow Your lead,

I know that it's the only way that I can get back home

Give me a revelation,

Show me what to do

Cause I've been trying to find my way,

I haven't got a clue

Tell me should I stay here,

Or do I need to move

Give me a revelation

I've got nothing without You

~Third Day

Feminine Appeal

2009-07-22T18:17:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a month, so I guess it's about time for another post. Nothing massively exciting happening lately, like falling from the sky or meeting fairies in the woods, but I thought I'd do a quick book review. For the past few months, I've been going through a book with some other ladies from church. Feminine Appeal, by Carolyn Mahaney. The book is based on Titus 2:3-5 "Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored." The author takes the role of the older woman, and her desire in writing the book is to teach younger women the things that she wished she had known when she was a young wife and mother. Each chapter covers one of the "seven virtues of a godly wife and mother": loving one's husband, loving one's children, self-control, purity, working at home, kindness, and submission. The book is definitely more geared towards married women, so our little group of very single girls came at it from a slightly different perspective. It was still very applicable, even though we had to twist some points a little to make them apply. For example, none of us have kids yet, but we all have younger people in our lives who look up to us. I'm glad we read it, and I'm sure I'll read it again, especially if I ever get married.

my baby brother turned 18!

2009-06-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, the last of the Daniel kids reached legal adulthood. Growing up in a big family, it seems like there's always been a baby in the house. So, it's kind of traumatic to think that all 5 of us are all growed up and responsible now. Jesse and I decided to give him a birthday he'd remember.

First, we invited a posse of our friends to assault the house and kidnap Jonathan. He already knew what we were planning to do that day, so the kidnap part was really a ploy to keep Mom from asking too many questions. Plus, it's always fun to throw a black bag over your brother's head, tie his hands up with duct tape, and throw him in the back of a car. Due to the craziness of the assault, and massive amounts of running and screaming involved, there aren't really any good pictures. You'll just have to see the video. Once we captured Jonathan, we all went to Denny's for brunch. I was in a separate car and got there a little late, so I missed out on them leading him in with the black bag still over his head and hands still taped up, but I heard it generated stares from everyone in the restaurant. After loading up on bacon, eggs, and pancakes, we all drove out to Waller to GO SKYDIVING!!! We've always wanted to jump out of an airplane, and have been planning to do it for years. But we had to wait til we were all over 18.

Jonathan was pretty excited.

So were Jesse and Janna.

Sarah Beth was nervous for Jonathan.

Anticipation!

I jumped first. Going against every survival instinct in your body feels weird. My instructor had to give me a little push.

Jesse was next.

We got the best pictures of Jonathan.

Doesn't he look happy?

His face pretty much turned into fabric. It looked like this for the majority of the video.

Coming in for a landing. I think that's me.

"I'm alive!"

Our friends are alive too!

The Daniel "triplets." We just fell out of the sky!